The Eastern Washington pheasant season opens Saturday, with the Columbia Basin offering about the same numbers of wild birds as were taken last year, supplemented with releases of pen-raised birds at specific sites. Regional Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Rich Finger, Ephrata, said last year’s statistics showed 12,500 hunters in Grant County taking 4,820 pheasant. He said the largest populations of wild pheasant are likely found in the Desert Unit of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area, between Potholes Reservoir and the town of George. Good numbers of mixed wild and pen-raised birds should be available in lower Crab Creek, Gloyd Seeps, and Dry Falls units.
Game farm pheasants will be released throughout the three-month season at several release sites, although the total number of birds will be down from past years. See the Eastern Washington Pheasant Enhancement Program Web page at wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/pheasant/eastern/ for detailed information about those sites.
The state’s best pheasant hunting has been found traditionally in the southeast corner, but this year’s outlook is rated only fair to poor, according to biologist Pat Fowler. The reason is largely because of the long, weet, cold weather throughout the region during the peak of the hatch in late May and early June. Game farm birds will be released here, as well; see the above Web page for information.
Other upland birds
Quail, Huns and chukar opened Oct. 2, and hunting throughout most of Eastern Washington has been fairly good. The birds, according to biologists, seem to have escaped the cold, wet spring, with populations remaining high.
Quail hot spots in the Basin woiuld include lower Crab Creek, the Desert Wildlife Area, and the Gloyd Seeps. Chukar hunters head for the Coulee scabland corridor running from Lake Lenore up to the south end of Banks Lake.
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