Partridges, Grouse, Tureys and Old World Quail

Wild Turkey

Meleagris gallopavo
When four Rochester birders decided they wanted to see some Wild Turkeys in March 1986, they headed directly to Letchworth SP. Under a stand of pines near the dam overlook on the east side, they found tracks everywhere in the patchy snow cover. But not a turkey could be seen. One of the group, Frank Dobson, followed some of the tracks out of curiosity. They led him to the high banks overlooking the river. “As I slipped through a break in the tangles at the top of the bank, there was a thunder of wings. Some forty huge, dark bodies hurried from the thickets on the steep slope just below me and headed for the opposite shore, nearly half a mile away. Dick (O’Hara) came up behind me just as the birds took to the air. What a sight!” (Birds, 23 March 1986) However, one need not even go to Letchworth SP to find our “noblest game bird.” This birder makes it a point to drive along King’s Highway near Durand-Eastman Park anytime he is in the vicinity, so good are the chances of finding a dozen or more Wild Turkeys nonchalantly strolling across an isolated lawn or causing a momentary “traffic jam” when they decide to amble across the road. In fact, in the late 1970s, one wild turkey, trapped and transferred as part of the state’s reintroduction program, became something of a “suburban” legend in Irondequoit. Transplanted from Steuben County to Durand Eastman Park, “Morris” was befriended by residents and soon became the “terror” of the neighborhood, chasing joggers – including the local police chief! – and rushing out to “attack” passing cars. Morris became a cause celebre when state officials decided it was time to get rid of this turkey run amok. But more on that later.
Background
“No other game bird has responded so well to the work of game managers – 49 states had huntable populations and had spring gobbler seasons by 1991,” notes Stephen W. Eaton in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. Native birds were domesticated as early as the 16th century in Mexico and Central America, were then taken across the world, and “returned” with European colonists along the Atlantic seaboard. Populations dropped drastically during the 1800s and early 1900s because of hunting and habitat loss. Extirpated from New England by the mid 19th century, but has since recovered with reforestation and release programs. By 1970 U.S. population was 1.25 million and had spread beyond its ancestral range in seven western states. By 1990 populations estimated at 3.5 million in U.S. and three Canadian provinces. Broods imprint on the female and may remain independent as a group or unite with one or more broods. In late fall, early winter, as yearling males exceed the size of the brood hen, they leave to form independent flocks. In fall and winter adult male flocks vary from one to nine; flocks of winter juvenile males can range up to 28. Female brood flocks can range up to 40 or more. In spring, female winter flocks break up into groups averaging four individuals, usually attended by a single adult male or sometimes as many as four. (BNA 22: 1-2, 10-11, 16-17)
Local history
“E. Howard Eaton, writing in 1910, could describe the Wild Turkey in New York State only in the past tense, unaware that this magnificent bird would return within four decades and that his yet to be born son, Stephen W. Eaton, would document the recovery.” – David W. Steadman (Levine, p. 69)The comeback of this once extirpated species, aided by reforestation and DEC trapping and stocking, is a major success story. These birds were abundant in New York before the coming of European settlers. The clearing of the forests, and hunting by settlers eventually drove them out. “In 1844, according to DeKay, they still were found in Sullivan, Rockland, Orange, Allegany and Cattaraugus counties,” Elon Howard Eaton noted, “but must have been destroyed soon thereafter as I can find no subsequent records for the State.” (Eaton I: 380)However, wild populations “continued to hold out in Central Pennsylvania into the 20th Century,” Stephen W. Eaton noted (KB 14:5) and during the mid 1940s began to invade northern parts of that state.The gradual abandonment of farms, and subsequent reforestation in New York state, in the meantime, had begun to restore the habitat in which this species had previously thrived. About 1949 “reports of feral birds started to become rather frequent” from Wellsville to Allegheny State Park. In the 1950s the state Department of Conservation began stocking 3,176 birds from game farms in the southern tier, primarily Cattaraugus and Allegany counties, but also in other places in central and eastern New York. (B&M, p. 192; Bull, p. 210) The stocking was discontinued after 1958, however, when it was discovered that a “natural northward movement was bringing into our borders a very wild, hardy strain of bird” from Pennsylvania. “To continue a stocking program would have been detrimental at this time, as it would have a tendency to weaken this strain by having the Game Farm bird and the wild bird breeding and raising a semi-wild turkey,” a state Department of Conservation labor foreman explained. When the northward movement of wild birds stopped “approximately fifteen miles north of the New York-Pennsylvania line,” state officials began trapping and transferring the birds into appropriate habitat farther north in New York. (B&M, p. 192) “The results were gratifying,” Bull noted. (Bull, p. 210)Three were taken by hunters in Livingston County in 1971. By 1977 families were observed by birders at Cumming Nature Center and Letchworth SP (Fox, p. 43; KB 27:217-218) and it was apparent only a year later that they were “firmly established” at Letchworth. (KB29: 91) One of the “most exciting” finds during the Letchworth-Silver Lake CBC in December 1978 was the sight of 18 to 24 “as they paraded along the river’s edge” opposite the swimming pool area in Letchworth SP. (BA, 20 December 1978) In April 1980, Chip Perrigo noted that there was a resident flock at Sodus Bay and “a lone Turkey was sighted in the town of Wheatland, perhaps the first legitimate report from Monroe County.” (LG, April 1980) The Kingbird that year also reported sightings at Scottsville and Murray. (KB 30:166) One was even perched in a tree, well out on the west spit of Braddock Bay in April 1983. (BA, 7 April 1983)“To get an idea of the population explosion of the birds, harvested turkeys during the hunting season is a great indicator,” Kurt Fox has written. (Fox, p. 43) In Livingston County, for example, the “first double-digit spring turkey takes were in 1977 and numbers have skyrocketed since then with a seasonal peak of 133 in the spring of 1996, despite establishing a two-bird bag limit in the spring of 1982.”Indeed, this species has reversed roles with Ring-necked Pheasant and is now more likely to be seen than that formerly abundant game bird along the lake plain.These birds have also become habituated to surburban and even urban settings. The Democrat and Chronicle Web site in 2007, for example, received several photos of Wild Turkeys strolling along residential streets in the Cobbs Hill area. They have become regular visitors to feeders. Ralph and Georgia Guenther, “RBA’s champion feeders,” have attracted as many as 15 at a time to their wooded lot in Fairport by spreading corn on the ground (in addition to maintaining five seed and two suet feeders). (LG June 2004)
Status
Increasing year-round resident. Occurrence
Breeding status: The BBA projects dramatically document the triumphant spread of this species northward, not only in our region, but throughout New York State. During the first project, for example, evidence of breeding in Region 2 was confined primarily to the southern half of the region, clearly demarcated by a line of blocks across the southern tip of Monroe County. Only scattered evidence of breeding was found to the north. By the second project, evidence of breeding was uniform throughout the region, with confirmed breeding almost all along the lakeshore.

Misc.
But what about Morris? Here are excerpts from this writer’s article, “Morris the turkey ran show in Irondequoit,” (D&C, 19 June 2006): For many Irondequoit residents, Morris was an entertaining distraction. Michele Johansson (then Roemer, a senior at Irondequoit High School) recalled that Morris' encounters with the family VW Beetle “went on every school morning for months” when her mom drove her to school. “It really was hysterical, as Morris would lay in wait for the Fubber-Mobile (the family nickname for the car), and the moment he heard the engine he would come running fast and furious for some quality time with his 'girlfriend'! He would strut around and display his tail — typical TOM — all in the name of love." Unfortunately, Morris was also chasing — and scaring — children who were walking to school or waiting for buses. There was concern that a pupil, scrambling to avoid Morris, might dart into a road and be hit by a car. Moreover, Morris had become so domesticated, “through residents' feeding him and trying to get close to him,” that he had “completely lost his fear of man,” one DEC biologist explained. That was not the kind of trait state officials wanted Morris passing on to others of his kind. DEC officials announced that Morris would have to be caught and destroyed.  That's when the outcry began. The Avon office of DEC was “flooded” with calls from neighbors pleading that Morris be spared. “He's really become a neighborhood pet,” one Hearthstone Lane resident observed. “Everybody's become attached to him, and I can't imagine anyone wanting him destroyed. There must be another way.” Eventually Morris was captured and taken to Lollypop Farm, living in a cage and “eating his mash behind mesh.” Each Thanksgiving Day he would receive greeting cards from Irondequoit residents who remembered the “good old days” when Morris was still on the prowl. He died of old age in 1989 and was buried in the Lollypop cemetery. A special service was held in his memory.

Ruffed Grouse

Bonasa umbellus
Anne Clarridge and Connie Nitsch may have been the first to encounter a bird that would become a legend in its time for its fearlessness – indeed, aggressiveness – towards humans. They were walking in Thousand Acre Swamp in November 1993 after the first significant snowfall of the season when a Ruffed Grouse appeared ahead. “They wondered how close it could be approached without being spooked,” Frank Dobson reported. “Strangely, the grouse did not fly off, but let the two women get quite close and in fact kept pace as they walked the trail, sometimes only five or six feet away.” It stopped following after 100 yards, but then picked them up again on their way out of the swamp. (Birds, 28 November 1993) By the following year, the same grouse, presumably, had become much bolder, and would actually run up and attack people. The following 7 May, Richard Ashworth remembers, “It sort of ran up to my boots and was pecking quite aggressively at the laces. I believe one or two people actually got bitten when they would reach down.” “Our suspicion is that it was not a truly wild bird to be behaving like that . . . that maybe it was an escapee from a collection…” Perhaps. But there have also been innumerable stories from our region of Ruffed Grouse demonstrating absolute fearlessness around humans. Even Eaton had seen grouse in the North Woods “which were as heedless of man’s presence as if they had been reared in a barnyard and when flushed would alight in the nearest tree and almost allow themselves to be knocked off with sticks.” (Eaton I:369)
Background
If you are fortunate enough to steal upon a grouse on a log in spring, seemingly “moping” or “sleepy,” be patient. The bird “presently becomes alert, raises his head, drops his tail, straightens his wings, fluffs out his breast feathers, and begins to beat the air with his wings, slowly at first, but with ever increasing rapidity, until there is visible only a mazy blur” Eaton described. (Eaton I:369) This is a resident of young forests from Alaska, across much of Canada into the Great Lakes region, northeastern U.S., and along the Appalachians as far south as Georgia, with populations also found in the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest. It especially favors early-succession forests dominated by aspens and poplars. This species is famous for the male’s drumming, produced when it rapidly flaps its wings to attract a mate or ward off other males. Males are restricted to small, dispersed territories where they are visited by one or more females who, in turn, may visit more than one male for mating. Females build the nest and care for the young. Cyclic declines in the Great Lakes region result from predation by Northern Goshawks and Great Horned Owls, which irrupt from Canada during periodic declines in hare populations. Populations are probably stable in Canada and western U.S., but declining in the eastern U.S. Fire control, opposition to clear-cut logging and conifer management practices have all resulted in the maturation and conversion of eastern forests in ways that reduce early-succession habitat favored by this species. (BNA 515:1, 2, 11, 13, 17-18)
Local history
During the late 1800s it was feared this game bird would become extinct as a result of the clearing of the forests in which it thrives. (Andrle, p. 128) Eaton (1910) found it to be “rare in the more thickly settled districts.” But he listed it as common in Livingston County, and fairly common in Monroe and Wayne. (Eaton I: 363, county charts)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, considered this an uncommon resident, with normally only single birds seen, and a maximum count of four.Tanghe, in his 1953 listing of breeding birds in the Rochester area, reported this to be a rare nester “except in southern portion,” and listed Bergen Swamp and Canadice as breeding areas. (GOS, May/August 1953)Beardslee and Mitchell (1965) wrote this species “has become all too scarce in this territory (western New York) to suit either the sportsman or the ornithologist.” (B&M, p. 182)However, with the decline in agriculture and subsequent reforestation, it has regained much of its former range across the state. “This reforestation provided ideal habitat conditions for the Ruffed Grouse, which is especially well adapted to early successional stage forests, exactly the kind found from 10 to 40 years following land abandonment,” Stephen Eaton notes. (Andrle, p. 128)The BBA projects found evidence of breeding in about a third of the blocks assigned to Region 2.
Status
Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a rare, permanent but very local resident.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a fairly common permanent resident.
Occurrence
More easily heard – drumming – than seen during spring mating in widespread locations, from Bergen Swamp to Letchworth SP to Wayne County woodlots.
Breeding status: “The ruffed grouse is still breeding in Bergen Swamp,” Edson reported in June 1936. “This was proved June 17 during a field trip . . . when an adult bird with chicks was seen. The adult flew and, as is their habit, the youngsters hid under leaves and vegetation and, as the markings are very close to their surroundings, it is impossible to see them while they remain motionless. Under these circumstances it is very easy to step upon them. One baby chick was picked up, dead, apparently killed in that way.” (WBR, 22 June 1936)This species was reported breeding at Ling Road in 1950 – “most unusual.” (KB: 1:21) Two at Mendon Ponds on 22 April 1971 were the first there in many years. “Small numbers of these birds apparently continue to exist in the wilder areas of several woodlands around Rochester, although seldom reported,” Richard O’Hara noted. (KB21: 150) The following year it was reported breeding at Kendall. (KB22: 128) Both BBA projects found evidence of breeding primarily outside of Monroe County, in Wayne County and in higher elevations to the south.

Maxima: 12 on 15 May 1966 (Foster, Listman, T. Tetlow) Wayne County. (GOS, July/September 1966) 11 – one adult, 10 immatures – on 17 June 1974 (Perrigo) at Honeoye. (GOS, July 1974) 10 on 12 August 1984 (Lloyd, Sunderlin) Wayne County near county line. (GOS, October 1984) 11 on 30 November 1954 (Jones) at Springwater, Livingston County. (GNR) 10 on 28 November 1955 (A. Tanghe) at Letchworth SP. (GOS, April-December 1955) 12 during first half of January 1995 (Hamilton) at Springwater. (GNR) 17 on 2 January 1960 in the Honeoye Lake area during the Little Lakes CBC. (KB10: 23)
Misc.
When John Brown visited the Letchworth Park residence of Gordon Harvey, general manager of the Genesee State Parks, a Ruffed Grouse landed in a flowering dogwood tree just 20 feet outside the glassed-in porch to feed on the tree’s buds and berries. Two more soon joined it. They were not deterred even though the people were clearly visible to them. This had “become a daily occurrence,” Brown reported in 1960. “Sometimes they bed down in a flower garden only four or five feet from the window.” (BA, 8 December 1960) Birders looking for Hooded Warblers along the Mary Jemison trail on 3 June 1984 saw a Ruffed Grouse hen with about 20 chicks “that all hid around their parent when startled.” (GOS, July/August 1984). Albert Colacino of Newark was deer hunting in November 1993, sitting on a stool with his back against a tree trunk, gun resting across his lap, when a Ruffed Grouse approached, examined him, hopped up on his gun barrel and then actually walked across his lap – not once, but a dozen times, Frank Dobson related. (Birds, 27 March 1994) Colacino, who carried a small 35 mm camera with him, had already shot up all his film by the time the bird was on his lap, so he returned the next day to see if he could get more pictures. Sure enough, the grouse repeated its performance, standing on the hunter’s lap for a long time. It didn’t even spook when Colacino talked to it.Another crashed through a window of the Lincoln elementary school in Newark on 20 December 1960, Brown reported. Fortunately, “there were no pupils in the room when the partridge came to grief in shower of glass. A teacher, Mrs. Janice O’Bine, was on the opposite side of the room and escaped the flying fragments.” (BA, 22 December 1960) Ironically, it was the first report of Ruffed Grouse in Wayne County in years, Brown noted.Such incidents are nothing new. Especially after dispersing in fall, Eaton wrote in 1910, so-called “crazy grouse” would appear in unusual places and even in cities. “Many instances are recorded of their having flown directly into cities and through plate glass windows or into houses in the country, or standing stupidly on the porch like tame chickens when people were about, or of alighting in trees over much frequented sidewalks and staring at people passing underneath.” (Eaton I: 376-368)

Gray Partridge

(also known as Hungarian Partridge)Perdix perdix “Chili – Sportsmen throughout this section of Western Monroe County are pleased . . . a recent survey . . . revealed that the large numbers of Hungarian partridges released during the last year and a half have survived the rigors of Winter and escaped sportsmen,” the Democrat and Chronicle reported in 1930. “Not only are the old birds alive and in excellent condition, but each one of the hens has hatched out large broods of young varying in numbers from 10 to 14, it is said.” (“Partridges in Chili Section Reported in Good Condition,” D&C, 22 July 1930) Such promising beginnings came to naught, and a gamebird many touted as superior even to the pheasant soon disappeared from our area. (AL, p. 25)
Background
This Eurasian species, first introduced into North America in the early 1900s, “has a high mortality rate, short lifespan, and high reproductive capability,” notes John P. Carroll in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. In fact, “it produces among the largest single hen clutches of any bird species.” By the 1930s, more than 230,000 had been released in North America. It prefers grasslands and grain fields, and its densest populations are to be found in the wheat-belts of northern Europe and North America – especially the northern prairie states and southern prairie provinces. However, small isolated populations remain in New York (primarily St. Lawrence river valley), Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. (BNA 58: 1-2)
Local history
Nearly 28,000 were introduced in New York state from 1927-1932, chiefly from Czechoslovakia, and “no known supplemental restocking has been made since,” Lee Chamberlaine writes. (Levine, p. 208)According to the 1930 newspaper article cited above, more than 25 pairs were “released about two years ago on Green’s Nursery farm, four miles southwest of Chili Station and not far from Burnt Swamp, a wild tract of woodland extending more than a mile along the south side of Black Creek, which acted as a haven for them during the severe winter weather.” Other Hungarian partridges had been released in “various parts” of the town as well.The partridges reportedly were “brought here and released by representatives of the New York State Conservation Commission co-operating with the Monroe County Isaak Walton League.“Unlike pheasants, which, the farmers claim, sometimes pull up a large portion of their field corn just as the young shoots are coming through the ground in the late Spring, the partridges cause little or no damage to growing crops. They are said to feed largely on weed seeds and insects that might damage farm crops were it not for the partridges.”However, the Monroe County annotated list notes that “attempts to introduce this species into Monroe County during the 1930s all failed. Those few birds which did survive initially and were recorded ‘in the wild’ soon disappeared.” (AL, p. 25)Moreover, changes in land use from 1950-1959, with a decline in croplands devoted to hay, small grains and grasses, and the loss of grain stubble and associated weed species resulted in further declines elsewhere in the state, Chamberlaine notes.By 1998, the last stronghold appeared to be along the St. Lawrence River at Cape Vincent, Jefferson County. (Levine, p. 208)

Ring-necked Pheasant

Phasianus colchicus
“Cawk-cawk!” “Wow, Ring-necked Pheasant,” this birder noted in momentary surprise as he stood atop the platform at Burger Park near Salmon Creek in Greece. By June 2006, a pheasant was no longer a bird he expected to see, even in suitable habitat. This species had been dwindling in numbers for years. But then, it certainly made sense to find one on this parcel of land set aside as part of the Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area. The location seemed like textbook habitat for this introduced gamebird: Acres of unmowed grassland, intersected by a hedgerow where the bird could be heard calling, right next to marshes with a border of shrubs and dense vegetation where cover might be found in winter. The sorry plight of this introduced gamebird was brought home for Frank Dobson as he drove past countless acres of sprouting corn, oats and wheat, and newly plowed fields during the spring of 1987. “A lone cock pheasant stood about a hundred yards from the road in a newly prepared field that was perhaps a mile long and a quarter-mile deep,” Dobson related. (Birds, 7 June 1987) At the approach of a vehicle, the cock ran for a strip of grass and weeds at the edge of the road, where it dropped from view. “What a target the cock would have been for a predator, with such limited cover. Oh, for the days of small fields and lots of fencelines and hedgerows for cover, food and nest sites.”
Background
Native to Asia, this is “one of the most successful and well-known introduced birds in North America,” an “exceptionally popular . . . upland game bird throughout much of its range,” notes the profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. However, it thrives best in areas with “numerous small farms, diversified crops and livestock, and many patches of idle habitat” such as existed after World War II. The continental population probably peaked between the 1930s and 1950s. Now, the shift from small, multicrop farms to large monoculture operations with clean farming practices have contributed to a steady decline in its numbers over much of its range since at least 1966. Numerous nests are also destroyed annually by earlier hay-mowing, and draining of wetlands has reduced winter cover. Illinois populations decreased 44 to 82 percent during severe winters of 1976-77 and 1977-78, primarily from exposure to precipitation and severe windchill. However, long-term trends are more commonly related to habitat changes. In Iowa, for example, potential nesting cover declined from 59 percent in 1939 - 1941 to 14 percent in 1973, with a consequent decline of 90 percent in pheasant numbers. Despite overall declines, this species has been increasing in parts of the Plains states. Introduction of stock from many subspecies has led to as many as 34 races. (BNA 572: 1, 3, 12, 20, 22, 24)
Local history
As early as 1888 this introduced game bird, which thrives in fallow grasslands, was released on the Wadsworth estate in Livingston County. (Fox, p. 42) Beardslee and Mitchell write that the first “successful liberation in western New York was on the Wadsworth estate in the Genesee valley in 1903.” (B&M, p. 187)A limited open season was declared in 1908, creating such a demand by hunters that the first state game farm was established to rear and release these birds; seven farms were in operation by 1946, with as many as 60,000 birds being released annually statewide, according to Stephen Eaton. (Andrle, p. 124) “It is estimated that more than 2,400,000 pheasants were stocked in the state from 1920 to 1950 as a result of the game farm program,” Beardslee and Mitchell state. (B&M, p. 187-188)By 1926, as many as 200,000 pheasants were being “harvested” annually by hunters. (Andrle, p. 124) Many hunters cited 1928 as the peak of abundance of this species in Monroe and neighboring counties, according to Dirck Benson, though state Conservation Department records indicated 1938. (B&M, p. 188) That year and the following one, Richard O’Hara found pheasants in Highland Park and adjoining areas, according to his birding diary. They even spoiled his look at a then rare Northern Cardinal at the park. “We traced his call for about 5 minutes and finally saw him. He flew to a small tree and just as we were in the right position, 2 pheasants flushed with a roar and away he went.” (Diary entry 26 January 1939)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated average counts of two to 10 of these resident birds, with a maximum count of 100.However, the doubling of hunting licenses from 288,000 in 1920 to 552,000 in 1956, at the same time farm acreage was decreasing, created “a serious problem,” Beardslee and Mitchell note. Benson says the first noticeable decline in this species was in 1941, when the fall hunting harvest was more than 15 percent below the 1938 level.Incredibly, by 1948, the pheasant population was believed to be only about 10 percent of what it had averaged from 1935 to 1940. Benson said a number of factors may have contributed, including a series of cold, wet springs and early summers in 1943, ‘44, and ‘45 which might have disrupted nesting and increased mortality rates among nestlings. He also cited changing farming practices, of which “the most important . . . has been the increased use of tractor-propelled mowing machines” that not only destroyed nests but killed hens before they could escape. (GOS, January-February 1948)Hunting was restricted, with “almost all of the Great Lakes Plain” closed to hunting in 1947 and 1948, Eaton writes. Releases were increased to 190,000 in 1947. “Slowly, the pheasant population began to recover, until by the late 1960s population levels on the Great Lakes Plain reached an all-time high,” Eaton notes. A total of 179 were tallied within the Rochester CBC circle on 31 December 1967 (KB18: 94) and 242 two years later, prompting Richard O’Hara to note: “It will be interesting to see how this popular and common game bird holds up under the new state policy which curtails re-stocking this species.” (KB20: 77)On 25 January 1976, Frank and Robert Dobson tallied 80 along the west lakeshore (GOS, March 1976); two years later, 40 were found by a GOS field trip on 19 February at Avon. (GNR) However, starting in the early 1970s, changes in land use caused a loss of fallow grasslands, and a series of severe winters initiated another major decline that continues to this day. “Loss of the Federal Soil Bank and Crop Set Aside programs was largely responsible for loss of habitat,” Eaton notes. “Small general farms became large dairy farms. Fields were enlarged, hedgerows removed, and corn became the primary crop. Fallow grasslands were either plowed or reverted to seedling and sapling stage forests.” Loss of grasslands reduced available nesting habitat; loss of hedgerows denied the pheasants protected “corridors” to use when moving from grasslands in summer to dense thickets for wintering.A 1979-1982 DEC study of wild hens fitted with transmitters revealed that nesting success and brood survival were poor, with 94 percent of monitored hens lost to predators because of the lack of protective cover. (Andrle, p. 124)Rochester Christmas Bird Count tallies plummeted after 1977 and in the last decade only 1-2 have been tallied per year, if at all.

By 1978, noted Bob Spahn, the population was plummeting so rapidly that “those scrupulously playing the listing game may soon be faced with the dilemma of whether any pheasant observed represents a remnant of the breeding population, or only a survivor from the most recent fall’s private stocking operation.” (KB29: 36). Added Chip Perrigo, RBA Field Editor: “The Ring-necked Pheasant is in the final throes of a complete regional decimation.” (LG, January 1979) By 1986, this species was so scarce here that it had become “a difficult species to monitor,” Kevin Griffith noted. (KB 36:216-217) Not a single bird was reported by Genesee Ornithological Society members in August 1987, the first month in nearly twenty years that had happened. (GOS, October 1987) Since about 1980 the state had annually released about 30,000 adult pheasants for hunting and distributed 60,000 day-old chicks to cooperators to raise and release; others are released by private reserves and breeders, Michael J. Murphy, wildlife biologist with the state game bird unit stated in 1995. (Correspondence) However, their impact on ‘wild’ populations is negligible, as fewer than 5% survive to the following spring. “The stocking of pheasants is not done to re-establish pheasants, but to provide hunting opportunity for sportsmen . . . It is unrealistic to assume that a pen reared bird can survive in the same environment that wild pheasants currently appear in low numbers or have been eliminated from. The habitat conducive to high pheasant populations does not currently exist in New York.” Since 1996, only one or two birds tallied in the Rochester CBC circle, or none at all, where 359 were counted in 1970; loss of habitat to ever-spreading subdivisions and other development has undoubtedly played a major role. However, Fox cites similar declines on the Little Lakes CBC (Fox, p. 42), no doubt related at least in part to changing farming practices cited above.
Status
Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this introduced gamebird as a fairly common (formerly common to abundant) permanent resident. Now no better than uncommon.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a fairly common (formerly common to abundant) introduced permanent resident.
Occurrence
Breeding status: Interestingly, data from the BBA projects, at first glance, would not appear to indicate such a drastic decline. However, two things are noteworthy. Whereas evidence of breeding was found in virtually every block in Monroe County during the first project, just the opposite occurred in the second, with no evidence of breeding reported for several blocks in the increasingly developed center and western half of the county, according to preliminary data. This probably reflects loss of grassland habitat to development and changed farming practices.Moreover, even in outlying areas, it was much more difficult to obtain confirmations of breeding. Note the corresponding increasing in “possible” breeding, which could be documented by sighting or hearing a single bird.

Chukar

Alectoris chukar
In June 1974, Roger Clark related, he got a tip about a “strange bird” that had been “dodging Kodak traffic each morning” along Route 104 near Gallop Road in Clarkson. When Clark went there, he searched the scrubby field for several minutes and saw it: a Chukar partridge. “The bird burst into the air, flew a short distance, and disappeared.” For the next few months, Clark “was amazed to see these comical little game-birds all along a five-mile stretch of Ridge Road (Route 104), thriving in the abandoned field(s) typical in this area. “One day in early August I recorded 11 Chukars highlighted by two scurrying back and forth on the neighbor’s garage roof!” (LG, July 1977)
Background
Chukars were first introduced into North America in 1893 when five pairs were shipped to Illinois from Karachi, India (now Pakistan), according to the profile of this species in The Birds of North America series. Between 1931 and 1970, about 795,000 were released in 41 states. It is now established in the Great Basin of the western U.S. north through eastern Oregon, western Idaho and eastern Washington “where steep rocky mountainous terrain harbors a mixture of brush, grasses, and forbs.” (BNA 258:1) However, “Chukar are released regularly in all states for hunting and other purposes,” Sibley notes, and thus are frequently seen outside of this range. (Sibley, p. 140)
Local history
The birds Clark observed in 1974 had apparently resulted from a summer 1973 release by a local hunting club. Apparently they had spread out and managed to survive upstate winters, hunting pressure, predators and “leisurely hikes across the Ridge,” Clark noted, because he was still seeing them in 1977. In fact, on 29 July that year, Bill Symonds tallied a dozen of them in Parma. (LG, August 1977) Escapees are still occasionally sighted. In May 2007 one showed up in backyards at Avon prompting a flurry of emails and calls to the Democrat and Chronicle from people wondering what it was.

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