LANSING, Mich. — Bird hunters in southern Michigan have more targets this fall. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is stocking nearly 7,300 ring-necked pheasants on public land, timed to the state’s pheasant seasons, as the release program enters its seventh year.
Birds go out in two waves: from Oct. 20 through Nov. 14, matching the fall Lower Peninsula season that opened Tuesday, and again from Dec. 1 through Jan. 1 during a winter management season open only in the southern Lower Peninsula. The 13 state game areas used stretch from the state’s southwest corner through mid-Michigan and into the Thumb and Metro Detroit, including Rose Lake in Clinton and Shiawassee counties and Pointe Mouillee in Monroe and Wayne counties.
One site changed this season. Birds will be stocked at the Gagetown State Game Area rather than the nearby Cass City State Game Area. The DNR posts parking lot locations for each area on its pheasant release page.
Michigan’s wild pheasant numbers fell sharply over the decades as grasslands gave way to big farms and suburban growth. In the mid-1900s, pheasant hunting drew more Michigan hunters than deer season, and state wildlife staff say the releases help bring back that tradition and introduce younger hunters to public land.
A statewide association of gamebird breeders and hunting preserves raises and supplies the birds, and the program is paid for by the $25 pheasant license. Hunters do not need a dog to take part, according to a statewide pheasant hunting group that backs the effort.
In parts of the Upper Peninsula, including all of Menominee County, the fall pheasant season runs through Oct. 31.
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