Opening day Pheasant Season

[entropy]

I don't even hunt 'wild' pheasants around here anymore, predators have really reduced the numbers. Coyotes, fox, and raptors all have increased, along with tilling right up to the ditches and mowing the ditches, doesn't leave a lot of habitat for wild birds around here. Since moving to Wisconsin 25 years ago, I have shot exactly one wild rooster, on the family farm. (SWMBO's family; I'm originally from MN.)

 

[Chuck R.]

I don't even hunt 'wild' pheasants around here anymore, predators have really reduced the numbers. Coyotes, fox, and raptors all have increased, along with tilling right up to the ditches and mowing the ditches, doesn't leave a lot of habitat for wild birds around here. Since moving to Wisconsin 25 years ago, I have shot exactly one wild rooster, on the family farm. (SWMBO's family; I'm originally from MN.)

Same issues here in KS, but also add growing cotton....Every time we go down to pheasant camp, more and more fields turned into cotton.

Can't blame the farmers though, it's another cash crop.

 

[rust collector]

I have really noticed the transition from wild birds in soil bank and weed patches to carefully orchestrated pigeon shoots using pen-raised roosters in lieu of the pigeons. Opening day long ago meant family reunions as the citified branches of the family returned to the farmland kin and rediscovered that they had a lot in common. Now we see 26 Gulfstreams and Citations parked at the airport, and shuttles to shooting preserves are everywhere. It can be tough to get breakfast if you arrive just after a bus drops 26 sports off.

We used to walk our butts off stomping through weeds, marshes and tree lines flushing the occasional rooster. The younger ones were the bird dogs, the middle group were the field commanders and drove the pickups, and the geezers (my current rank) yakked and blocked at the end of the field. It's still fun, but sanitized, packaged and monetized in a way we could never imagine 60 years back.