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Pheasant Season Opens Saturday In Wisconsin

The DNR plans to stock approximately 75,000 pheasants from the state game farm on over 80 properties statewide. / Photo Credit: Wisconsin DNR

MADISON – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds hunters that the state's 2023 pheasant season opens at 9 a.M. On Saturday, Oct. 14 and will run through Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.

Pheasant hunters need a valid small game license and a 2023 Pheasant Stamp, which can be purchased through the Go Wild website or at a license sales location.

There is a special daily bag limit of one rooster per day over opening weekend, Oct. 14-15. Starting Monday, Oct. 16, the daily bag limit increases to two roosters per day. This limit will remain in place for the remainder of the season. Hunters may harvest a rooster or hen when hunting in designated hen and rooster hunting areas (see page 18 of the hunting regulations for a list of these areas).

Several pheasant hunting properties close at noon on weekdays beginning Oct. 16 and running through Nov. 3. Hunters are encouraged to double-check the legal shooting hours on the properties they intend to hunt and consult the DNR's hunting rules and regulations before going out.

The DNR plans to stock approximately 75,000 pheasants from the state game farm on over 80 properties statewide. Depending on production levels, pheasants are released once before the pheasant hunting season and twice a week for the first two to three weeks of the season. After that, birds are released about once a week until the 9-day gun deer season opens on Nov. 18.

Hunters can use the DNR's Fields and Forest Lands Interactive Gamebird Hunting Tool (FFLIGHT) to locate properties stocked with game farm pheasants. FFLIGHT allows hunters to use aerial maps, topography and measuring tools to identify areas of interest and make their trips more productive and enjoyable.

Due to changing habitat conditions, Cadiz Springs State Recreation Area and Liberty Creek Wildlife Area, both in Green County, will not have pheasants released this season. Hunters can visit the DNR's Pheasant Stocking Information webpage to check the status of a specific property.

Pheasant hunters are reminded to practice TAB-K while afield:

T – Treat every firearm as if it is loaded.

A – Always point the muzzle in a safe direction.

B – Be certain of your target and what's beyond it.

K – Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until ready to shoot.

Additionally, hunters are encouraged to wear blaze orange or pink while pheasant hunting to increase visibility for other hunters and outdoor recreators. Blaze orange or pink is required during open gun deer seasons.

For more information, including complete pheasant hunting regulations, hunting hours and helpful tips, visit the DNR's Pheasant Hunting webpage.

Trees For Winter Shelter, Alfalfa For Summer Pheasant Nesting; CRP Can Help With Both

Oct. 11—ARMOUR, S.D. — If you were a pheasant, where would you want to build your home?

You may be asking yourself this if you are out hunting this season, hoping to find the special spot. With a significant portion of the easternmost part of the state feeling the effects of drought,

according to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,

there is the potential that the living and eating behaviors of the birds are getting a little out of whack.

An especially hot and dry summer could mean pheasants begin gathering food earlier in the season, said Sydney Settles, a Mitchell-based farm bill biologist with Pheasants Forever.

That means the availability of a plentiful and diverse range of pheasant foods on a parcel of land may be a key indicator for where a population may be brooding.

Conservation Reserve Program land is typically a great bet for finding that plentiful store of food, Settles said, not just for pheasants but for deer, duck and other ground-dwelling birds like grouse.

"Just like people, they eat what they want," Settles said. "Counting those populations isn't cut and dry, but having grasses and forbs close to the habitats definitely won't hurt your population."

A farm bill biologist connects landowners who want to alter the land's habitat with federal and state programs that provide grants and resources for doing so. One of those methods is through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Programs.

CRP offers yearly payments to farmers who convert part of their land to wildlife conservation land. The goal of the program is to improve the environmental health and quality of the land. But if you are a hunter or are interested in letting people hunt on your land, the program is also an opportunity to cultivate healthier populations of sport-hunting animals.

CRP also offers a number of resources for landowners who want to cultivate the wildlife on their property. Larry Wold hunted on the land he owns with his parents in Armour for close to 20 years before they bought it. He said the shelter belt of trees planted on the land three to four decades ago are a big reason why birds are thriving there. He can't take full credit for that, the previous owner had already started planting the line of trees before the land was his.

Identifying the number of birds on a plot of land is no exact science. Wold said if a landowner wanted to know how many are living on their land without spending the time to count every specimen, they should sit silently outside at night.

"If you want to know how many birds are on your property go out in the dark, get in a tree, be quiet for an hour and listen," Wold said.

Wold said he has seen a lot of pheasants in the early morning wandering into the road to find gravel to put in their crop, and some sunbathing under the long alfalfa during the day.

"We try to look at what we copy from and what's worked, and we try to build those areas so we can keep as many wild animals as possible," Wold said.

Wold said the belt of three to four decade-old trees on his property was a lifesaver for the pheasant population last winter. If those trees weren't there there would be a severe shortage of cover from the up to 26 inches of snow that hit Armour last January.

"We were very fortunate in that the way we had our property set up we wintered hundreds of birds that came in from all over the area," Wold said.

From the folks he's talked to, Wold said the years of cutting down trees and plowing poor soil-quality land to maximize the amount of land planted with crops is over.

Converting a portion of land to CRP is not just beneficial for the population of game birds and deer living on that property, but also for all of the animals in the surrounding land. The small portion of land, whether it is too rocky or wet to farm, may be incredibly valuable to the farmer when tall grasses and food sources are planted there instead.

"If everybody had just five or ten percent of their land area as CRP it would be amazing how much more wildlife we'd have," Wold said.

Wisconsin's 2023 Pheasant Season Opens Saturday, Oct. 14

The DNR plans to stock approximately 75,000 pheasants from the state game farm on over 80 properties statewide. / Photo Credit: Wisconsin DNR

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds hunters that the state's 2023 pheasant season opens at 9 a.M. On Saturday, Oct. 14 and will run through Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.

Pheasant hunters need a valid small game license and a 2023 Pheasant Stamp, which can be purchased through the Go Wild website or at a license sales location.

There is a special daily bag limit of one rooster per day over opening weekend, Oct. 14-15. Starting Monday, Oct. 16, the daily bag limit increases to two roosters per day. This limit will remain in place for the remainder of the season. Hunters may harvest a rooster or hen when hunting in designated hen and rooster hunting areas (see page 18 of the hunting regulations for a list of these areas).

Several pheasant hunting properties close at noon on weekdays beginning Oct. 16 and running through Nov. 3. Hunters are encouraged to double-check the legal shooting hours on the properties they intend to hunt and consult the DNR's hunting rules and regulations before going out.

The DNR plans to stock approximately 75,000 pheasants from the state game farm on over 80 properties statewide. Depending on production levels, pheasants are released once before the pheasant hunting season and twice a week for the first two to three weeks of the season. After that, birds are released about once a week until the 9-day gun deer season opens on Nov. 18.

Hunters can use the DNR's Fields and Forest Lands Interactive Gamebird Hunting Tool (FFLIGHT) to locate properties stocked with game farm pheasants. FFLIGHT allows hunters to use aerial maps, topography and measuring tools to identify areas of interest and make their trips more productive and enjoyable.

Due to changing habitat conditions, Cadiz Springs State Recreation Area and Liberty Creek Wildlife Area, both in Green County, will not have pheasants released this season. Hunters can visit the DNR's Pheasant Stocking Information webpage to check the status of a specific property.

Pheasant hunters are reminded to practice TAB-K while afield:

T – Treat every firearm as if it is loaded.

A – Always point the muzzle in a safe direction.

B – Be certain of your target and what's beyond it.

K – Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until ready to shoot.

Additionally, hunters are encouraged to wear blaze orange or pink while pheasant hunting to increase visibility for other hunters and outdoor recreators. Blaze orange or pink is required during open gun deer seasons.

For more information, including complete pheasant hunting regulations, hunting hours and helpful tips, visit the DNR's Pheasant Hunting webpage.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

Mentioned in This Press Release Recent Press Releases by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

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