Help Bring Back Pheasant Hunting In The Imperial Valley Of SoCal

spectr17

spectr17

New member
The Meeting in the Valley

Let's bring back pheasant hunting to the Imperial Valley of SoCal.

WHEN: Friday July 25th at 7pm

WHERE: Denny's restaurant at Imperial and Ocotillo in El Centro Ca. I-8, north on Imperial, 1st light on the right.

TOPICS:

Habitat Goals,
Organization
Helping Leon Lesicka and DWU
Valley Pheasants Forever Pheasant opener banquet
 
Howler, you are right for Montana, but I don't think you've been to Imperial Valley. It's a agricultural area in the middle of the desert just north on Mexico. Lots of gray fox, kit fox, coyotes, bobcats and badgers, all of which eat pheasants. They use to plant them down there every year so guys could hunt them. I think they stopped because the predators eat as many as the hunters shot. I hunted pheasant in a place north of Bakersfield called Pixly some years ago. They planted the afternoon before the hunt and I saw with my own eyes the coyotes gourging themselves on pheasant, that opening morning there were piles of feathers everywhere. Spectr 17, I hope they start planting them again for you guys. If I was not so far away I'd come down to help. Good luck with your effort and Good Hunting.
 
Yep, Danny be right.Hand feeding pheasants to the coyotes, we got some fat coyotes around here in the good old Pixley area /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Sounds like a good time to use a pheasant distress call and stack up some coyotes? What type of habitat is presently in the area? You mentioned agricultural areas and desert--are there weedy draws, creeks, or any type of CRP fields in the area? In these parts, pheasant populations are dependent upon 3 main things: Habitat (winter cover is important but having the right combinations of grasses and weeds to attract insects for the chicks to eat is very important)Weather (cool rainy periods when chicks are hatching is not good), and Predators. Controlling the predators doesn't do much good if suitable habitat doesn't exist, or if the weather is cool and rainy during hatching days. I'd think in California, the weather would be good, and habitat would be your biggest factor. If suitable habitat is around, pheasants can not only easily get food, but they can escape some of the predators as well. Hawks and Owls also take lots of pheasants, especially the pen raised variety that are used to a net protecting them from above. My $.02 worth.
 
GCrock, this is all farmland and you can't shoot a rifle in that area, shotgun only. There are lots of coyotes in the area, I never went back there to hunt them, I know better places believe it or not, lol. By the way I saw an albino coyote when I was hunting there, only one I've ever seen. Seems some of the locals knew about it too, Good Hunting.
 
Imperial Valley is not an ideal environment for propogation of resident populations of pheasant. Great for quail and jacks, but not much else. Planted pheasant rarely last through the winter. Those that escaped the hunters ended up as hors d'oeuvres for the local predators.
 
The reason the predators are eating the birds is lack of hiding places for the pheasents (habitat) I know it is not in the cards to let some land lay idle but that is where the birds will come from.
 
Howler, that's the problem down there. The soil is dry, powdery, and highly alkaline. It's an arid desert surrounding a very salty man-made lake. Natural cover is a scattering of salt bush, creosote, and occasional mesquite. Not much else there but that damn powdery soil. There is some farming going on, but it's pretty expensive to condition and water that desert. Besides lack of cover, lack of forage and water will concentrate any birds into specific farm areas where they are vulnerable to man and beast. Unfortunately, it's just the wrong ecosystem for maintaining a healthy population of wild pheasants.
 
NASA,
that brings me to the next question, as I understand it they have fair quail hunting, well why try to put a round peg in a square hole, if pheasent hunting ain't going to work, concentrate on what will and try to improve that. shooting a pen raised pheasent who just hours b4 was eating cracked corn from a bag and now flying away and you shoot it is that really a thrill, shooting a clay pidgen maybe just as exciting, I don't know? we have a fair pheasent pop, depending on rainfall in spring. but no quail and quail sounds like a real blast to me.
 
there is a pheasant ranch not too far from me(about 10 miles). I haven't seen any come this way. Would like too. There is good cover and I'm keeping the coyotes down. Does any one here have any info on planter around Central California. There are Quail and Turkey here. I'm thinking they would do well. Darrin
 
Howler, that's the right idea. F&G should emphasize what works, rather than beat a dead horse. There are also some African desert partridge that would be a good possibility for introduction. Just look at how well chucker have adapted to California.
 
Back
Top