Southwest Nebraska at advantage for pheasant season

The pheasant season opener is always a big event in Southwest Nebraska, but don't be surprised if you see more out-of-town vehicles in town than usual.

That's because man and Mother Nature have joined forces to make it that way.

For one, the last couple of winters have been rough in eastern Nebraska, followed by wet springs, which makes it harder for baby pheasant and quail to be produced and to survive.

The July Rural Mail Carrier Survey showed an overall game bird decline of 27 percent between 2010 and 2011. Last year, hunters took 251,800 pheasants, 30,000 fewer than the year before.

For another, the coordinated Focus on Pheasants has given Southwest Nebraska an advantage for attracting hunters to walk-in CRP-MAP lands, which are more abundant in the area.

With high commodity prices, Nebraska has lost 32 percent of its Conservation Reserve Program land since 2006, when 1.35 million acres were enrolled in the program, which gives farmers an incentive to leave fields unplanted and open the land to public hunting.

Southwest Nebraska had a high percentage of CRP land which wasn't set to leave the program until 2013, which prompted the Game and Parks Commission to create the Focus on Pheasants area in 2010.

Despite declines elsewhere, pheasant hunting in Southwest Nebraska should be at least as good as the 5-year regional average, and better than the 10-year average, according to the commission.

The Southwest Focus on Pheasants Focus Area is in Hitchcock, Hayes and Red Willow counties.

The best quail hunting should be along Kansas border between Franklin and Dundy counties.

The daily bag limit for pheasants is three roosters, and the possession bag limit is 12. The daily bag limit for quail is six birds, and the possession limit is 24.

Shooting hours for pheasant and quail are 30 minutes before sunrise, to sunset. Hunting permits and habitat stamps are required.