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St. Paul, Minn. (AP)

Minnesota pheasant hunting prospects decline

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Minnesota pheasant hunters are expected to shoot fewer birds this fall.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says its pheasant index is down 27 percent from last year and 27 percent below the 10-year average. The index had been above average for the past four years, which meant some of the best hunting since the mid-1950s and early 1960s.

The DNR cites three factors in the drop. Last winter was moderately severe, some 72,000 acres of private land was removed from the Conservation Reserve Program, and cool, wet weather during the hatch appeared to reduce survival.

Hunters should find pheasants in about the same abundance as 2004, when 420,000 roosters were harvested. Harvests exceeded 500,000 roosters in five of the past six years.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)