Though the numbers indicate it might be a down year, Thompson said while he was sitting in his deer stand last week he heard quite a bit of cackling from pheasants, meaning there are still a number of birds in the area. He said hunters may get different results in the different areas across the area.
While the roadside counts may be down from last year’s total, the August count of 90.4 birds in West Central Minnesota is still 36 percent higher than the 10-year average from 1998-2007 of 68.2 pheasants during the same drive.

According to the DNR 2008 hunting prospect much of Pope County is estimated at Fair or an estimated 25-49 birds per square mile. The remainder of Pope County is labeled as Good, or more than 49 birds per square mile. If the map is any indication, Southwestern Minnesota should have a good harvest this year as nearly all of the areas are estimated to be Good hunting grounds.

Even though early indications is that pheasant numbers might be down this year, Thompson said living in Minnesota sometimes "we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best."

Nonetheless, Thompson said landowners and hunters need to continue building habitable land for pheasants to survive the winter months to continue bringing the pheasant population back to large numbers throughout the state. After all, Thompson said the less hens that survive the winter means less offspring the following year, so work is crucial to help provide a good habitat for hens to ensure they make it through the winter and the numbers continue to rise.

Pheasant hunting season, which began last Saturday, will run through Jan. 4, 2009.