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I was thinking that the picker killed fewer mature birds than the combine. What about nest destruction? I don't have an opinion, just know that when combines came to southern PA, the pheasants disappeared.

Stan, I think corn pickers left more corn on the ground than combines. I can easily remember seeing ears on the ground with part of the kernels eaten off. In the 40s we used to patrol the picked corn fields with horses and a wagon, picking up the missed ears off of the ground.

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I don't think there would be any difference in that regard, Bill. I've never seen a quail nest in a corn field anyway. We don't start combining until about the end of August/early September and nesting is about done by then. Bush hogging is different. It potentially destroys lots of nests.

We lose plenty enough corn behind a combine for game birds. If you can keep your harvest losses to 2% you're doing good. Two percent of 200 bushels is two bushels of corn per acre. Good for dove shoots!

I would think the "disappearance" of pheasants coinciding with the appearance of corn combines would be a coincidence. Not knowing much about pheasants tho', that is just conjecture.

grew up in the fifties, huntin quail in florida...

back then, dint need no dog...

my trusty stevens 94 410 wid cut off barrel, did the job...

but hit shore would have been nice to have had ah doublegon...

all one had to do to kill ah mess o quail was to walk the rows in an orange grove about sun down an watch fur these little birds to begin to form their covies for their evening dusting and socializations...

now, lot of the groves are gone and the land repurposed for retirement home developments and is some cases with entire new towns created, with their own post offices an such...

meantime, while the retirees were movin in, so were the others predators...

like the coyotes movin east...

more hawks an owls than ever before...

more kittens gone feral...

and then, there are the turkeys...

only quail left now in much of the country east of the mississippi are stocked birds put out for well to do bird shooters...

den, an den...

in 1960, ah wuz kidnapped by yankee gypsies and taken north...

an of all places, wound up on the edge of the northern suberbs of, would you believe...

new york city...

dint do no bird huntin for about five years or so...

den ah was invited to go "grouse huntin" by ah co worker of italian/irish heritage...dis bein new york an awl...

anyway, he had dis nice little 20 gauge doublegon, by one antonio zoli...

an ah 20 gauge ithaca pump gon, which he graciously let me shoot...

to be continyaed..unless otherwise discouraged...

How do we go about effectively discouraging you? Inquiring minds want to know.

Stan, it's pretty hard to effectively discourage someone who has the maturity level of a 6 year old. Or is it a 5 year old?

stan, dont have an answer to that one...

to become discouraged is to fail...

i dont like failure...

is there some hidden psyco logic cal reason you dont wanna hear about my grouse an pheasant huntin experiences in ny an pa in the late 20th century...ah mean that was real bird huntin an not yo sitin on yo can shootin at sum innocent song bird as it innocently flys by...

gee fly...dont know you...dont know of you...have no idea who or what you are...

but, what you have shown us is that you belong to the same cheap shot club as stan...

an that you have limited appreciation of creative writing...ah mean, it aint easy diggin all these memories up an then presenting them in a somewhat cohesive, entertaining and infotmative manner...

ah jes may not bother no mo...

less there is a little encouragement exhibited here...

member, yall dint go fur the owl chonicles, so ah discontinued dim here...ah can do dat agin, if yall aint nice...

I can't imagine a mature pheasant just sitting without flushing or running as either a corn picker or a combine ran over it. And while I have chopped up a few baby rabbits while brush-hogging, more mature animals or birds take off well before the tractor gets too near. But my Uncle did deftly swoop down and grab a ringneck pheasant by the neck as it sat tight on a cold rainy day when I was in my teens. A quick twist, and it was in his game pouch without firing a shot. According to my Dad, he also did that on several occasions with rabbits. He said the secret was to just keep walking without breaking stride when you saw one sitting, and quickly grab it without making eye contact. I never managed to do it before they flushed.

In Northern Pennsylvania, the native ringneck pheasant population crashed very quickly after the Game Commission decided to permit harvesting hens north of Interstate 80. Purely a stupid decision that they were too obstinate to admit was a serious mistake. Imagine trained wildlife biologists unable to figure out that killing off the mommy birds would drastically reduce the number of baby birds. That was a huge factor in my opinion, but clean farming techniques also reduced cover and the real nail in the coffin was the introduction of the Eastern coyote and protection of hawks. Native birds are all but extinct in most of the state now. A very small number of stocked birds survive to breed before predators get them. Attempts to replace ringnecks with Sichaun Pheasants, without correcting other factors, failed miserably too. We have also had a severe decline in ruffed grouse numbers, and nobody is using herbicides or combines in the grouse habitat. One expert here claims that predators actually increase game bird numbers. Here's a photo of a coyote attempting to protect a pheasant from freezing to death!