West Side Pheasant

[Cascade_fisher]

I fly in late Saturday night so I will be going later afternoon on Sunday unless my wife says different.  Possibly Cresent Lake.

[ORCA_SIX]

Did you find a hunting partner?

[singleshot12]

Does anyone know if it's legal to shoot hens that escape a release site?  There is always a few pheasant that survive the orange army and end up on adjacent private property.

[MP123]

Does anyone know if it's legal to shoot hens that escape a release site?  There is always a few pheasant that survive the orange army and end up on adjacent private property.

I've wondered about that too.  Hens and Roosters are both legal to shoot on the Westside at least.  You might need to have a license and wear orange to legally shoot escapees that made it to your private property, I'm not sure...

[bobcat]

You can only shoot hens on the release sites.

[MP123]

You can only shoot hens on the release sites.

I've never seen that in the regs. 

It's a nice idea that some might escape and establish a native population.  Most of the Pheasants I run into off the release sites or after season are male though and I've never seen chicks on the wetside.

[akirkland]

Winter and spring is too wet for westside pheasant reproduction....generally.

[singleshot12]

You can only shoot hens on the release sites.

I'm just having a hard time seeing that stated in the regs   All I found was either sex for west side.  I'm all in favor of not shooting hens off of a release site in hopes one will make it to nest.

[Carl]

Did you find a hunting partner?

Pens fan, has graciously offered to take me out this Saturday!   Hopefully I’ll get some good pictures of his dog working the birds.  If so, I’ll post them.

I would love to do the same with some other folks too.  So, please keep me in mind. 

Thanks to everyone, you’ve been a real blessing to someone new to the area. 

I'm looking forward to when I can reciprocate and help out someone else - when I figure out what’s going on! 
 Carl

[bobcat]

Well, it used to be that you could only shoot hens on the release sites. Maybe that has changed? I don't know, I don't have the bird reg's in front of me right now.

[mrmoskillz]

Westside is 2 either sex

[GrousePointer]

You can only shoot hens on the release sites.

I've never seen that in the regs. 

It's a nice idea that some might escape and establish a native population.  Most of the Pheasants I run into off the release sites or after season are male though and I've never seen chicks on the wetside.

I've seen pheasant chicks in Longview. But it was near a blackberry infested spot and it has been many years ago now.

Sent from my Lumia 710 using Board Express

[bobcat]

Sorry for posting incorrect info. I don't know why they changed it, but apparently they did.

I live right across the road from Scatter Creek, and there are lots of wild pheasants around here. Definitely not like it used to be, because of all the development that's happened in the last 15 years or so.

I just saw a hen pheasant with about 8 chicks on my street in August.

I guess I can now start shooting the hens in my back yard. 

[Stilly bay]

Sorry for posting incorrect info. I don't know why they changed it, but apparently they did.

I thought you couldn't shoot hens off the release sites either....

I just called and talked to the powers that be, and they said as long as you have a pheasant release site permit and permission from a landowner you can shoot your limit of hens anywhere on the westside.  she said pheasants CANNOT survive in western washington so they do not even try to manage them ... ... where as in the past ( before they misappropriated funds and went broke) they had a slim hope a hen pheasant could escape and live a happy damp life on the west side and contribute to the wild population.

since I was just assured pheasants cannot survive on the westside, I am trying to take into account all the times I have seen what I thought were broods of young pheasants during my travels on the wet side of the state... must have been sage grouse. 

[singleshot12]

I think sometimes on rare occasion a pair will survive until spring and nest. There may be several hold overs in an area but they never seem to get established. Something always happens to them whether it be predators,lack of food cover, or pesticides, maybe all combined
All I know is it wasn't too long ago when parts of Western Wash. had repopulating established wild birds. Which also makes me believe not only do you need the right habitat but you also need the right strain of pheasants for the West side.
So maybe it's less expensive for the state to release pen birds for shooting rather proper management.