Pheasant season opens Saturday

by Lowell Washburn
Anticipation is mounting. For upland bird hunting enthusiasts, the long agonizing wait is nearly over. The 2007 Iowa pheasant season begins Saturday.
No matter how you slice it, the annual pheasant opener represents nothing less than Iowa’s Sporting Event of the Year. With an estimated 120,000 ring-neck enthusiasts taking to the fields this Saturday, nothing can stand in its shadow.
There’s a good reason why these gaudy, fast flying gamebirds create such a stir. Of all the outdoor experiences a person can encounter, few thrills compare to the explosive, heart stopping flush of a cackling rooster.
As is the case with most upland gamebirds, pheasant populations are subject to extreme cycles of boom and bust. Boom cycles are what hunters live for. By contrast, the fall seems ruined when numbers crash. This year, Iowa hunters will find pheasant populations somewhere between those extremes. Although there are some fluctuations statewide, overall bird numbers are essentially the same as last year.
Bird numbers remain average to very strong across much of central, north central, and northwest Iowa. In the southwest, pheasants suffered a significant decline for the second consecutive year and are down 37 percent from last season.
But regardless of how many roosters are actually lurking in your favorite hunting hot spot, Opening Week-End success will largely depend on those two all important, make or break the hunt factors --- weather conditions and corn harvest.
Extreme heat, driving rains, and excessive winds spell bird hunting disaster. By contrast, fair skies, moderate breeze, and morning frost all but guarantee roast pheasant for Sunday dinner. As far as the Opening Day weather goes this year, we’ll just have to wait and see. After all, this is Iowa.
The status of this year’s crop harvest is much easier to predict. As of Monday, a little less than half of this year’s corn crop was out of the field and in the bin. This is nearly identical to where the harvest stood at this same time last year. As far as pheasant hunting is concerned, the conditions couldn’t be better --- especially for those of us who will be tromping the fields for the entire season.
Here are the facts. Come Saturday’s opener, there will be enough corn harvested to make a reasonably good number of birds available to hunters. The other side of the coin is that there is also enough corn left standing to provide tens of thousands of acres of temporary pheasant refuge. As the harvest continues, those fields will insure a dependable supply of naïve, have yet to a see a hunter, roosters in the weeks ahead.
If the weather cooperates and the bird dogs behave, pheasant hunters can expect good things from the season ahead.