Pheasant hunting season begins this weekend in Iowa, and there’s good news on the pheasant population front.

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the annual roadside count for pheasants is up 290% compared to last year.  Surveyors conducted their survey every 30 miles on gravel roads during sunrise with preferably heavy dew and little wind, and reported that in West Central Iowa there was 22.1 birds per 30-mile radius compared to 5.7 the year before.

This means that there were more hens moving their broods to the road edges this year than last year.

Greene County Conservation Director Dan Towers says the results are certainly exciting to see, but they still have a long way to go to increase the pheasant population.

“Keep in mind last year’s counts were the worst in the 53-years of having these counts, since 1962, they started this survey.  So a three-fold increase over last year isn’t a lot to speak of but it’s still going in the right direction.”

Towers believes the increase is because of little snowfall during the bitterly-cold winter and not having the gully-washer rains or the prolonged cold during those rains have helped provide for a good hatching season.

Pheasant hunting season goes from October 25th through January 10th.