Northwest Missouri’s Mixed Bag of Bird Hunting

By Jim Low, Missouri Dept. of Conservation

First posted on 11-02-2008

Some people drive hundreds of miles to hunt pheasants. Others gladly pay to hunt pen-reared quail on game farms. In Missouri, they could hunt wild quail and pheasants on public land, and work in doves and woodcock with no extra cost or effort.

Dove season opened Sept. 1 and continues through Nov. 9. Woodcock season opened Oct. 15 and runs through Nov. 28. Quail season runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15 statewide. Pheasant season runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15 in the North Zone and from Dec. 1 through 12 in the South Zone.

The Missouri Department of Conservation maintains dozens of areas encompassing thousands of acres of upland bird habitat. Much of this acreage is managed especially for doves, quail and pheasants. Native grassland, food plots and brushy strips created for cover make these areas favorites of bird hunters.

Nowhere is the variety of upland bird hunting greater than in northwestern Missouri. Pheasants inhabit several conservation areas there, and many of these support good quail populations early in the season. Even though Missouri’s dove population peaks in early September, thousands still remain here into November, and more migrate into the Show-Me State from points north.

Also, the annual woodcock migration is in progress, bringing waves of the long-billed, tasty game bird into thickets across Missouri, where they rest up and probe sandy soil for earthworms.

Aaron Jeffries is in a better position than most people to appreciate northwestern Missouri’s upland bird hunting possibilities. He spent countless hours hunting quail with his dad as a teenager. Together they became protégés of Jack Stanford, the Conservation Department biologist who did ground-breaking field work studying quail biology, behavior and hunting from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Jeffries, who still pursues upland birds with his father, turned this passion into a profession. As the Conservation Department’s upland game coordinator, he now occupies the same niche Stanford did. In that capacity, he gets reports about game populations and bird hunting at conservation areas (CAs) such as Bilby Ranch, Happy Holler and Pony Express.

“Bilby is extremely popular for pheasant,” said Jeffries. “Pony Express has traditionally been the hotspot for doves in northwest Missouri and it also has good quail, because when you do dove management you’re making some pretty darned good quail habitat as well.”

Jeffries said hunters who visit these areas during the first week or two of quail season often have a chance to pursue two or more upland game bird species.

“There’s always the possibility for a mixed bag of upland birds during that first week in November,” he said. “This is the best time to dove hunt at our farm. We get some of the late migrants, and we’ll have a huge winter flock. You can get some great pass shooting. Sometimes after hunting quail we put the dogs up and dove hunt. Other times it’s just jump shooting.”

Bilby Ranch CA is the largest of the three northwestern Missouri areas Jeffries mentioned, sprawling over more than 5,000 acres west of Maryville. Grassland dominates the area, and ring-necked pheasant management is a major emphasis. Pheasant, quail, dove and rabbit hunting all are rated good there.

Approximately 30 miles southeast of Bilby Ranch is Happy Holler CA in central Andrew County northeast of Savannah. The area covers 2,207 acres in two tracts, with about equal acreages of grassland and woodland. Cropland, old fields and savanna make up the bulk of the remaining area, with about 70 acres of wetland thrown in for fun. Management on the area includes cropping, haying and disking and prescribed burning to maintain grassland. The area has bottomland acreage as well as uplands. Pheasant, quail and rabbit hunting are rated as fair on the area, but the dove hunting is rated good.

Dove hunting also is a big draw at Pony Express CA, which is 9 miles west of Cameron in DeKalb County. At 3,290 acres, this area offers hunters plenty of room to spread out. Five-hundred acres of forested land and woodland around two lakes lends variety to an area otherwise dominated by grassland, old fields and cropland.

For maps and more information on these and other CAs, use the Conservation Department’s Conservation Atlas Online Database, http://www.mdc.mo.gov/atlas/.

-Jim Low-