Pheasant hunt likely to be fair, at best

The Utah pheasant hunt will open Saturday. Roughly 16,000 hunters are expected to be out walking through fields and along ditches.

The Utah quail hunt will also open Saturday.

A combination of unfavorable weather, shrinking habitat and the simple fact that pheasants are not easy to hunt will mean a hunter will be lucky to get a single rooster and extremely lucky, or skilled, to get a limit of two.

According to wildlife biologists, the hot, dry weather reduced the number of pheasant and quail chicks that hatched in much of Utah this year.

Which has biologists predicting a hunt that will be fair at best.

Even with the prospects of returning home empty handed, the pheasant hunt remains one of Utah's most popular upland game hunts.

A good place to start looking for ring-necked pheasants is in northern Utah. More than 50,000 acres of private land in the northern area is now open to sportsmen through the Division of Wildlife Resource's Walk-In Access program.

For more information about the program, visit www.wildlife.utah.gov/walkinaccess.

Following is a region-by-region look at the upcoming hunt:

NORTHERN REGION

In Cache and Rich counties, the pheasant populations appear stable and very similar to last year.

In Box Elder County, the dry spring resulted in a reduced pheasant production, but healthy, isolated pockets of pheasants are still found throughout the county.

And in the waterfowl management areas, the Farmington Bay, Ogden Bay and Salt Creek waterfowl management areas, report pheasant brood sizes and the number of broods are down from 2006. Upland habitat conditions across most of these areas are stressed because of the dry summer. The marsh vegetation is in good condition, however. Pheasant hunters should expect to find success similar to what they found last year, but not as good as the success found in 2004 and 2005.

CENTRAL REGION

Pheasant populations are similar to last year in the southern part of the region. Agricultural lands and marsh areas around Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake harbor some birds. Please remember that written permission is required to hunt agricultural lands.