The best spots to hunt pheasant and quail

This has been an unusual year for Colorado hunters. Although it takes a good number of “holdover birds” to maintain a healthy upland bird population, the vast majority of birds harvested every season are from that year’s hatch. The success of each year’s hatch depends on the weather.

This year, conditions have been highly variable across the upland game range. We’ve seen severe drought, torrential rains, tornadoes and large hailstorms that have impacted cover in many areas.

Generally speaking, southeast Colorado has been extremely dry early but slowly improving, while the northeast part of the state saw a dry winter and a relatively mild wet spring, which quickly evolved into a hot, dry period this past summer.

Although hunting conditions have not been ideal, there are still plenty of birds to be found in what is shaping up to be an average year, said Ed Gorman of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

But he emphasized that birds will not be in all the traditional areas. If you’re not seeing birds, you need to move and do some scouting.

“If you spend the boot leather, you will find birds,” Gorman said.

Yuma is the No. 1 county in Colorado for pheasants, followed by Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick and Kit Carson, he said. But these counties also have the most hunting pressure.

Washington, Baca and Morgan counties have decent populations of birds and aren’t as heavily hunted. Quail are concentrated in the southeastern area of the state, and it looks to be a good quail season.

There are many other areas on Colorado’s Eastern Plains that provide good bird hunting. You just have to do some homework and scouting.

A great resource for hunters is the state’s Walk in Access Program. The program pays farmers to allow hunting on parcels of their property without having to ask. These parcels are typically selected because they provide good habitat.

Gorman suggests getting either a hard copy of the Walk in Access Atlas or downloading the app to your mobile device and thendrivingtheroads where you intend to hunt. This will not only help you locate birds, but you can also get a feel for the set up of the habitat and adjoining fields.

Colorado may not be as famous as some areas for its bird hunting, but it does provide an excellent opportunity for hunters of all levels to learn and enjoy pheasant and quail hunting.