It's all about location for pheasant hunters this fall. Thanks to a harsh winter and spring, Hawkeye pheasant numbers may well vary widely on opening day. Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

The good news and bad news, all in one sentence: Pheasant hunting prospects for this fall in Iowa will range from "easy" to "extra effort required." It all depends on where in the state you hunt.

Hunters in some parts of the state will fill their daily limit before 9 a.m., within a half-mile of their truck. Hunters on the other side of the state will feel lucky to get a shot at a couple roosters after traipsing for miles and hours without flushing more than scattered, lonely hens. The wide variations in pheasant numbers that hunters will see on opening day are the results of the erratic weather Iowa experienced last winter and spring.

"If you want to predict pheasant populations in an area where you intend to hunt this fall, look back on what the weather was like in that area during April and May," says Todd Bogenschutz, an upland wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "Those are the critical months of the year when it comes to determining how many birds we'll have to hunt in the fall."

Bogenschutz says cool, wet weather during pheasant nesting -- and especially during the weeks immediately following the hatch -- often results in lower pheasant numbers when fall arrives.

"The chicks don't have much stamina right after they hatch and can't thermo-regulate (or maintain their body temperature) very well," he says. "Cool weather is hard on them, but cool, wet weather really clobbers them. Once they get wet from rain or from moving around in wet grass, they can't get warmed up and we see high mortality."

Low insect numbers are a second slam against newly hatched pheasant chicks in a cool, wet spring. Chicks feed almost exclusively on insects after they hatch. They don't add grains or seeds to their diets until they're several weeks old. Cool, wet weather inhibits insect hatches, decreases insect mobility and can deprive pheasant chicks of their primary food source, with fatal results.

THE WINTER OF 2007-08
Even before spring arrived this year, many hunters were concerned that last winter's brutal weather had harmed Iowa's pheasant hunting prospects for this fall. Bogenschutz acknowledged that the extended period of harsh weather caused pheasant losses, especially in eastern and southeastern Iowa.

"Through Feb. 19, east-central Iowa averaged 51 inches of snow, compared to an average snowfall of 24 to 31 inches of snow for an entire winter," he said. "We ran the heavier-than-normal snowfall and other factors through some computer models, and predicted that east-central, northeast and southeast Iowa might have had up to 60 percent pheasant mortality by the time spring arrived."

Bogenschutz noted that pheasant mortality in an average Iowa winter (25 inches of snow) is around 30 percent, and that pheasant losses were "acceptable" away from the snowbelt that blanketed the eastern third of the state last winter.

"West-central Iowa had less snow than average, so their losses were below average," he says. "Northwest Iowa had slightly higher than average snowfall. We calculated (northwest Iowa's) pheasant mortality last winter was around 40 percent, which isn't a problem if spring weather was good and they got off a good hatch and had good chick survival."

The brutal winter in eastern Iowa and above-average pheasant losses had many hunters predicting doom and gloom for this year's hunting season, but Bogenschutz is upbeat.