OutdoorNebraska

24 Nebraskaland • December 2019 provide the best winter cover for pheasants. "These plants are tough, and when snow-covered they stay standing throughout winter," Meduna said. "Even when buried deep in snow, the cattails and bulrushes have open space below where birds can burrow into for warmth." Mel Nenneman, a wildlife biologist for 17 years at the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Cherry County, confi rmed the value of marshes as winter habitat for pheasants in the Sandhills. "In late fall and early winter, the birds will roost about anywhere on the refuge," he said. "They will hunker down in tall grass up on the dunes or in the wet meadows bordering the marshes. But when the weather gets cold, they move into the marshes." Before the wetlands freeze over, pheasants will roost on clumps of vegetation standing above the water where they are safe from mammalian predators. But when the wetlands ice-over, "they like to roost in the hardstem bulrush patches as these have openings that they can drop into [when fl ying in to roost]," Nenneman said. "When the weather gets really gnarly, they move to the cattails. They don't seem to like patches of common reed. These are so tall and dense it hinders their fl ushing [escape] when the coyotes start running the marshes. Pheasants even seem to avoid the overly dense, jack-strawed cattail and bulrush stands, except around their more open edges." Even in tough years, when blowing snow has fi lled most of the marshes, Nenneman said there are always patches of open cover where birds can fi nd shelter from storms. Without the marshes as winter cover, he doubts pheasants could survive in the expansive, prairie-covered Sandhills. "McKelvie National Forest [also located in the Cherry County Sandhills] has few marshes and far fewer pheasants than the refuge," Nenneman said. Winter Food To survive winter's chill, pheasants must lose body heat at a slower rate than they produce it. Although cover is key to pheasants staying warm, they also need food to survive. In our region, pheasants require one-third more energy in December than in October, and with shorter winter days, they have less time to forage. Pheasants relish the large and nutritious seeds of smartweeds (center), barnyard grasses (right), docks (lower center), annual sunfl ower (lower left), giant ragweed (top) and other wetland plants.

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