Snow Pheasant Pursuits

Snow Pheasant Pursuits

By Kent Boucher

As I write this, my legs are burning from a fresh sunburn I received while mowing my acreage for several hours yesterday, and the thought of wading through January’s knee deep snow drifts seems almost therapeutic. When December gets here though, my sunburn will be long gone and my legs will be burning from the cold snow and wind, and the pheasants will be enduring those conditions as well creating some unique opportunities for this phase of pheasant season.

Opportunity One: Tracking
I love hunting with good hunters. If you’ve ever had the privilege of doing so, you know what I’m talking about. They are smooth operators in the woods. They don’t make noise, they work terrain angles and features to stay out of sight, and they are efficient with every movement needed to get into range to make a kill. One of the most impressive traits that good hunters possess is tracking ability. By closely analyzing the evidence left behind by the target animal, good hunters can zero in on where to set up to have the best opportunity to get a kill. I imagine this description has caused your mind to picture a big game hunt, but in reality tracking and reading animal sign can be applied to nearly any kind of hunting, and this includes hunting pheasants in the snow. Tracks, recent beds, and tail feather drag marks are usually the most useful sign to read. When there is an abundance of these pieces of evidence, get ready because the area you are hunting probably has the few key components that the birds will congregate around.

Opportunity Two: Congregating Birds
Congregating birds is truthfully both a helpful and challenging aspect to hunting snowy season pheasants. Helpful because the birds can be easier to find, and challenging because the few areas of congregating birds are the only opportunities you will have to hit your limit. Iowa is a land of plenty when it comes to food on the landscape, but once snow has accumulated on the ground, the food can become very challenging for the pheasants to locate. When this happens standing food sources will become a major attraction- standing native legume species like round headed bush clover, Illinois bundleflower or some of the tick trefoil species may still be holding some seeds for birds to feed on, as well as forage crops like sorghum, soybeans, or corn. Other convenient food sources could be south facing slopes where the snow has melted, or high points where wind has drifted most of the snow away allowing birds to access seeds left on the ground. Of course premium thermal cover will create the same crowding effect- seek out cedar, spruce, and fir trees, cattails, and most importantly standing native grasses. Where this heat holding cover is abundant, the birds will be foun

Opportunity Three: The Last Grass Standing
All native grass serves its purpose within a prairie matrix. Cool season growers like prairie junegrass and the different wild ryes serve as early protection for ground nesting birds and their nests. Warm season grasses such as big bluestem, side oats grama, little bluestem, indiangrass, switchgrass, and different dropseed species hide chicks, fawns, and other young-of-the-year wildlife from predators. When it comes to the fall and winter months all of these now dormant grasses work together to help wildlife survive the harsh cold and snow of winter, but not all of these grasses hold up to winter weather as effectively as you might expect. Stout stemmed tallgrasses like indiangrass and switchgrass, as well as short grasses such as little bluestem, and side oats grama hold up to snow the best. Diverse prairie plantings can achieve the best resistance to snow packing because shorter plants help support the taller grasses by lodging underneath the stems of the tallgrasses. Being able to identify these plants during the summer and early fall can help a late season hunter mark a few locations to prioritize in January where the birds will be piled up to find shelter from the snow and wind.

Opportunity Four: Late Flushes
After the first two or three weeks of the pheasant season it seems that the birds really wisen up to the hunting pressure. A slammed car door, or an over eager and under trained bird dog could flush away much of the day’s opportunities within moments of arrival at the CRP field. Even if plenty of stealth and discipline are incorporated into a hunt during this point in the season, birds are still likely to flush early, narrowing the already slim window of opportunity for getting a good shot off. Of course this is just part of the challenge to pheasant hunting that makes it fun, but oftentimes the frigid hunts during the late portion of the hunting season provide slower flushes as birds loathe leaving their warm bedding cover. Hunting with a pointer and a flusher can be incredibly effective for taking advantage of these late flushes- just be ready for tight quartered action and gun safety.

Opportunity Five: Don’t Be a Fairweather Pheasant Hunter
As a Chicago Bears fan I have often bemoaned to other football fans that I wish I was a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Frequently the response is, “So, just like the Chiefs then.” But that’s not how it works. For whatever reason we all end up with our favorite teams and we have to ride with them for the good times and the bad times (I’m still waiting on some good times), and to just switch loyalties to the current successful team would earn me the derogatory label of ‘fairweather fan.’ That being said, I think there are a lot of fair-weather pheasant hunters out there. They show up for the first week or two of the season and then when the cold weather settles into the Iowa prairies and creek bottoms they have transitioned to watching football from the warm couch season. I get it, the cold hurts, wading through the snow kills our leg muscles, and our dogs require more care, but it’s good for us. Embracing challenging conditions and pursuits hones us as people. It slaps the softness and quit out of us, and builds our mental and physical toughness that helps us survive the curveballs of life. Hunting is an opportunity to connect with our ancestors who first pursued game for food, and their skill and toughness helped preserve our genetic lines long enough for us to exist. Choosing to get out in the snow and wind is a nod to them that will leave you with a unique sense of accomplishment when you climb back into the modern comforts of a heated truck cab.

When the weatherman is calling for 6+ inches of snow this late December, don’t grumble in frustration. Instead smile and embrace the cold, windy opportunities that lead to heavier game bags, and personal satisfaction.