Pheasant Season
With peasant season opening on Wednesday Sept 1, does anyone know If pheasants will have been dropped off at the Daysland site for opening day.
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There will be birds on opening day, and there will likely be a huge crowd chasing them as well. I drove up opening day a few years ago, and there were 26 vehicles parked, so I kept right on driving, and came back a few days later.
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Opening day gong show,dangerous and not very gratifying.
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Are the release days posted anywhere to know what dates to avoid? I want to “go for a walk” at one of the sites up north and would definitely prefer no crowds (though maybe it isn’t as crowed up north?). Don’t have a dog, so getting a bird would be a bonus, lol. Never been, but have been thinking to take a look for a few years now. Maybe this is the one.
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They specifically dont release the dates or it would be total mayhem. I have heard of people shooting as soon as the door on the truck is opened.
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Fishguy, if you have few hunters with dogs it will help your success, their dogs will flush birds that are missed many times and can come in your direction. Just as mentioned, they mix and match release days to confuse hunters?? that might follow the meat wagon.
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ACA is doing a great job of running the release program. It ain't broke so don't try to fix it.. Publishing the release dates or times would be a huge step backwards. In fact it would ruin the program in my view. |
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There are many places where wild birds and few-no hunters exist in Alberta.
When I lived in Edmonton, I even knew of a semi-wild group that lasted from ‘86-‘90 when we had warmer winters right along the Sturgeon River…… Not a big fan of release birds…. |
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No, before that. Back when habitat was abundant. The birds were wild. As a kid growing up in Brooks in the mid 60's, part way through the season, the limit went from 3 to 5 roosters a day. There were pheasants everywhere. The habitat was thick. All the irrigation ditches had cattails and willow all along them. Ditches along the roads had cover. Farm fields had lots of cover in the corners. Farming practices became more intense. The EID has buried pipes where there used to be canals. I believe pesticides, herbicides have also played a part in the demise of the wild pheasant population.
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There are still areas which hold a healthy population of birds, as some have mentioned, habitat is the key... Here we have an abundance of the ditch parrots.
Jim |
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It's reassuring to hear that there are still a few places with the habitat needed to support wild populations. Like others on here, I wish there were more places like that as there were back in the good old days. Unfortunately, I'm not optimistic about changes occurring which will permit that so I'm glad to have ACA running the release program and doing the excellent job they are doing in managing same.
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Just as already mentioned we had many wild birds when Provincial Brooks Hatchery was operating and releasing 100,000 birds per season. Then Klienken gave our million $$ hatchery to some good PC supporters. However ACA is doing good job with the limited $$ resources they have to work with now.
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No hope at Hopewell this morning. Arrived about 8:45 - about a dozen hunters and a half dozen dogs. All was quiet - no shots and the dogs were not finding anything. Apparently about 80 birds were released last evening and whatever remained overnight were cleaned up by hunters arriving by day break. Always neat to watch the dogs working but have to wonder about flushing dogs working 100/200 yds from a handler. Sloughs and wet spots are dried up and there wasn’t much foxtail on the SE area.
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Anybody I have ever hunted with kept their dogs close . Cat |
I had a good 1st day out but I was on site at sunrise. My golden retriever put up 4 birds all within range and we got 2. The other 2 got away due to me being slow to pick up the sign that a bird was about.https://i.imgur.com/6aibAHK.jpg
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To make it interesting...Can't comment much except that an ACA email I got mentioned, and I quote:
"We will be releasing another batch of melanistic pheasants on our Provincial Pheasant Release Sites. Send us a photo if you see or harvest one!" |
Anybody head out to hopewell ? If so how was the fox tail this year ?
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When I used to have the release job hunting was shutdown at 2pm thus giving us a safe time to release and time for the birds to get climatized to the area. We released birds every day and received many complements from hunters who had great hunts.
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The fox tail is not bad, it is shorter and sparcer than I have ever seen it. Most of the cover is shorter and very dry. I haven't been down to the west end where the big pond is. |
Was out today, release truck was there, so I ran my dog far away, then came back when the shooting stopped , an hour later, shot my two birds and left. At least 60 shots fired, for maybe 10-12 birds.
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