(Radio Iowa)n – The pheasant season opened on October 31st with a lot of optimism about bird numbers and the prospects for a good season. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says a lack of phone calls to his office tells him things are looking good. “I haven’t gotten hardly any calls at all –so that means it’s going well,” Bogenschutz says. “Because, if it’s going bad I get the complaints.”

He says the one complaint he’s gotten is a lack of birds in eastern Iowa near Davenport. Bogenschutz says that’s due to a lack of habitat there. He says everything heading into the opener pointed to the potential for success. “We kind of expected that things would be pretty decent. It was a little hard with the roadside counts and the drought, because that does impact the birds that we count. Generally in those regions where the counts weren’t as good, people are pretty pleasantly surprised,”Bogenschutz says. “The weather has been pretty challenging. We’ve had a lot of windy days, some dry days, warm days at least in the first part of the season that make hunting challenging.”

He says calm winds make it easier for dogs to smell the birds and keeps them from moving. “A little bit of snow and the lack of wind is generally ideal. The birds tend to hold better when its calmer and scenting conditions are a better when we’ve got a little moisture,” he says. Bogenschutz says they will have some exact numbers when they get the survey information in after the season ends.