NOVEMBER 2016 • NEBRASKAland 35 NOVEMBER 2016 • NEBRASKAland 35
nesting season as indicated by our rural mail carrier surveys.
There are always some isolated areas that get hit with
severe weather during the nesting season but nothing was
real widespread this year. We've had a good amount of
precipitation throughout the summer and fall in most areas
of the state, a tremendous wheat crop in western Nebraska,
and the habitat in our core pheasant areas is looking good.
Farmers I've been in contact with have seen relatively good
numbers of birds compared to years past.
The one thing that echoes throughout the state are the
excellent quail numbers this year. We had a remarkable year
last year, and assuming even average production, this year
should be just as good if not better. People are seeing quail
in areas they haven't seen quail in years.
In most areas of Nebraska that's still true, but
there are a few caveats. Pheasants almost always
respond positively when you plant CRP. At a very localized
scale, adding CRP will result in more birds – at least up to a
certain point. But the thing we are starting to find is that the
bird response to a 50-acre CRP planting in one area of the
state differs greatly from that observed following the exact
same planting in another part of the state. So in an applied
sense, this means that not all CRP acres are created equal,
and that the surrounding landscape often dictates the degree
to which pheasants will respond to a management action, or
in this case, planting CRP. The Nebraska Cooperative Fish
th
Q:
Will birds find habitat if you create it?
Mark Bazis carries an over-and-under shotgun while pheasant hunting in a Sarpy County CRP field.
