THE pheasant season in New York should start off on the plus side with the release of birds into the wild prior to the start of the shooting season.
The NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released about 26,400 adult pheasants on lands open to public hunting for this fall hunting season. The pheasant hunting season begins on Oct. 1 in northern and eastern portions of the state, Oct. 21 in central and western areas and Nov. 1 on Long Island.
The pheasants were raised at the DEC’s Reynolds Game Farm in Ithaca. The majority of them will be released on state wildlife management and cooperative hunting areas prior to and during the fall hunting season. A list of the pheasant release sites can be found by going to the DEC’s Web site at http://www.dec.state.ny.us
Anyone interested in raising and releasing pheasants to expand next year’s hunting opportunities should contact the Reynolds Game Farm at (607) 273-2768.
The Day-old Pheasant Chick Program, developed in the early 1900s, provides day-old pheasant chicks to cooperating 4-H groups and sportsmen and sportswomen. The chicks are distributed to applicants in May and June, and cooperators incur all costs associated with rearing the birds, including feed, water, utilities and facility construction. This year, nearly 57,000 pheasant chicks were distributed statewide.
Pheasants Forever (PF), a nation-wide group, has issued its predictions for the coming pheasant season:
In New Jersey there is no other state where urban sprawl has a more dramatic impact on wildlife. In fact, the Garden State is the most densely human populated state in the nation. As a result, says PF, the state’s pheasant harvest has plunged to fewer than 5,000 wild roosters a season. In a unique habitat initiative, PF in New Jersey is working with golf courses to improve grassland wildlife habitat on golf courses.
In New York a mild winter was greeted by heavy rains in May, June and July, PF says. In fact, precipitation was way up during June’s primary nesting season. Those rains will likely lead to a New York pheasant season slightly below its 100,000 bird average harvest.
