In what will likely be a surprise to most hunters, Minnesota's annual pheasant roadside counts were virtually identical to last year. They remain 22 percent below the 10-year average.
The statewide pheasant index is 63 birds per 100 miles of road traveled, which is up slightly from last year's average of 59 per 100 miles.
After a harsh winter in the pheasant range, Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologists had expected a drop in pheasant numbers.
"We were surprised," said DNR pheasant research biologist Kurt Haroldson of Madelia, Minn. "As hard as the winter was, we were expecting it to go down further."
Haroldson said the winter was the hardest in Minnesota's farmland region since 2001, although it ended early.
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DNR biologists are expecting a pheasant harvest of 400,000, the same as last year. The harvest has been 500,000 or more in five of the past seven years, a result of mild winters and lots of acres in Conservation Reserve Program grasslands.
Pheasant numbers remain best in the southwest (104 birds per 100 miles driven) and in the central (76 per 100 miles) and west-central regions (70 per 100 miles).
