The Cornhusker State has witnessed its pheasant population strengthen gradually over the past six years. Those gains have taken time, and Taylor points to the effects of drought conditions as the chief culprit in suppressing numbers. “We have seen a slow growth in harvest numbers over the past few years,” he observed, “but every time we think we have turned the corner to make bigger steps, Mother Nature throws something else at us.”

Harvest numbers for the past season were still being compiled when I talked to Taylor, who felt that the total kill was comparable to 2005, when 437,000 ringnecks were taken. “That is up from the 406,000 birds taken in 2004,” he said, “but I would still like to see that number in the half-million range or beyond.”

One limit on Nebraska harvest numbers is a falloff in hunter numbers. “We have been losing some of our hunting base,” said Taylor, “with both resident and non-resident numbers slipping the past couple of years.”

In 1998, Nebraska saw 77,000 resident hunters and 22,000 non-residents hitting the pheasant fields; in 2005, those numbers fell to 56,000 residents and 14,000 non-residents, respectively. “It’s hard to maintain or gain in annual harvest numbers when some of our hunters are staying home,” Taylor stated.

Unlike the Dakotas, Nebraska experienced much tougher conditions this past winter; the full effects, whose influence has yet to be projected, will not be revealed until fall. “We saw some significant snow in the southwest region,” Taylor reported. “The snow came toward the end of the hunting season, and some areas were hit pretty hard. Hopefully, if we experienced any losses they will be local, and those areas can recover quickly.”

Coupled with the heavy snow was a late-January ice storm that hit the central part of the state hard. The storm was heavy enough to cause structural damage to personal property, and such conditions can be tough on pheasants trying to scratch out a living on the prairie.

“Fortunately, the storm occurred later in the season and we didn’t hear of any big losses,” said Taylor. “When losses occur on a large scale, I am usually quick to hear about them, so we are crossing our fingers for that region as well.”

Taylor went on to say that whenever we have serious winter weather conditions, it’s typical to expect the worst and hope for the best.

On the bright side, added moisture helped ease some drought worries and pushed the severe drought line farther west. In the season that’s upon us, the northeast and southwest regions should provide the best hunting the state has to offer. Look to Dundy, Hayes, and Perkins counties in the southwest and Burt, Cedar, Dixon, and Madison counties in the northeast. The northeast was down a little last year, but improved habitat conditions should provide good hunting again this fall.

Along with the Cornhusker State’s share of state and federal land open to public hunting, another boon to pheasant hunters in Nebraska is the CRP-MAP program, which allows hunting on private acres leased by the state. The program, which opens some 180,000 acres of private CRP land across the state to public hunting, is very popular.

This year’s Nebraska hunting season is set to open Oct. 27 and run into January. The daily limit will again hold at three roosters, 12 in possession. Shooting hours are a half-hour before sunrise to sunset. The required resident annual small-game permit is $12; the non-resident license is $68. Both include the $1 agent fee.

KANSAS
Until this past season, Kansas pheasant hunters had seen their most popular game bird population on an upward trend, but owing to severe drought in the western reaches of the state, officials went into last year’s season predicting a 15 percent drop in numbers.