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MDNR Report
Grasslands Are Great Michigan Pheasant Attraction Ring-necked pheasants are beautiful birds, with their rainbow of feather colors and impossibly long tails. Since their introduction to Michigan in 1895, they have offered delightful views to those lucky enough to spot them.
Pheasants are omnivores, feeding on insects, seeds, grains, corn kernels and buds. They nest on the ground among low grasses, and females lay 10-12 olive-buff-colored eggs per year. After about three to four weeks, the eggs hatch and the speckled young pheasants can follow their mother around shortly after hatching.
Pheasants use grassland habitat in just about every season of the year. Optimal pheasant habitat must include a combination of grasslands, idle fields, wetlands, croplands, haylands and shrublands. Undisturbed low- to medium-high grasses and legumes are vital for nesting and brood-rearing habitat. Wetlands, windbreaks and dense covers of cattails or switchgrass protect the birds from heavy snow and cold winds in the winter. Fields of grain and weeds provide a consistent winter food supply.
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By BOB GWIZDZ - Michigan DNR
Michigan’s Sharp-Tail Grouse Offer Unique Hunting Opportunity
Mention grouse to most Michiganders and they immediately assume you're talking about ruffed grouse, game birds that thrive in early successional forests - think aspen - and provide much of the romance in upland bird-hunting lore.
But there's another grouse in Michigan that is far less numerous and widespread and is pursued by far fewer hunters. Sharp-tailed grouse are prairie birds, inhabiting grasslands and the neighboring brush, found only in the Upper Peninsula, and mostly on the east end.
While only a relative handful of sportsmen hunt them, they offer a unique upland opportunity to Michigan bird hunters. Michigan also has spruce grouse, which are not hunted.
Sharp-tailed grouse (commonly called sharptails, sharpies or sharps) are mottled brown, tan and white birds that get their name from the shape of their primary tail feathers.
They average about 20 inches in length and weigh in at around 2 pounds when mature. They are common in the western United States and Canada, but are much less so here in Michigan.
"Michigan is the furthest east state where you can hunt sharptails, said Al Stewart," the upland game bird specialist with the Michigan DNR. "We work with a variety of partners - soil conservation districts, private landowners, and the Michigan Sharp-tailed Grouse Association - to maintain sharptail habitat and sharptails so we can maintain a hunting season in this state."
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(IDNR report)
Reservations for put-and-take pheasant hunts on DNR properties will be accepted from 5 a.m. on Sept. 1 until midnight on Nov. 25.
The change in start time allows DNR staff to be available when customers are online reserving hunts. This allows DNR staff to give real-time customer service if hunters have questions or problems with the process.
Put-and-take hunting reservations are selected on a first-come, first-served basis. All hunting days will start on a Saturday in mid- to late November.
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(Provided by MDNR)
Michigan Leads the Nation in Woodcock HuntingSpring means many things to many people - morel mushrooms, trout fishing, turkey hunting or viewing migrating birds overhead. The American woodcock is one of those migrating, part-time Michigan residents that split time between the southeastern United States and Michigan.
For decades, Michigan has helped gather information on woodcock populations, which spend time in numerous states and provinces from Canada to the Gulf, said Michigan DNR upland game bird specialist Al Stewart. The state leads the nation in woodcock hunters and birds harvested.
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By Bill Wiesner
The Infamous ‘Ground Shrinkage’ of Black Bears
When estimating size and weight, black bears are the most misjudged big game animal in the woods. Bears simply look much bigger than they are, especially to hunters who have not seen several of them under the self-imposed stress condition of viewing one at close range with the intention of putting a tag on that bear. Therefore, the huge bear before the shot frequently becomes a much smaller bear when the hunter walks up to it. Sometimes the difference is so great the pre-shot giant looks like a post-shot sack of potatoes.
That can put a damper on your spring, or fall, bear hunting success.
Contrary to popular belief, all bears are not 500 pounds. As a matter of fact, a 500-pound bear is exceptional. Hair up to four inches long, often standing erect when the bear approaches the bait, adds considerably to the visible circumference of the animal. That, plus a bit of fear and general unfamiliarity with the animal, create large weight and size misjudgments.
Over the years I have taken many first-time bear hunters to the north woods. Until that time, the only bear they had ever seen was at a zoo or in a picture. Not only did they tell me they wanted a 500-pound (or better) bear, when they shot a 200-pound bear they thought they had killed a 500-pounder.
In an Ontario camp one year, a father and his two sons were on their first bear hunt. I took a decent 200-pounder the first night out and after that contented myself fishing and visiting with the outfitter and his family. About six o’clock on the third evening an RCMP officer pulled into the lodge’s driveway. One of the sons was so excited he had started to walk back to camp. The officer had picked him up on the highway.