The long cold winter and wet spring will likely lead to fewer pheasants for Iowa hunters this fall. Iowa Department of Natural Resources research biologist Todd Bogenschutz says fewer hunters took to the field last year, but bagged more pheasants.He says the poor conditions in 1999 kept the hunter numbers down last year. Bogenschutz says the weather is a key predictor in bird numbers. He surveyed the weather reports across the state to get a rough idea about bird numbers.The heavy snows and wet spring lead him to believe the pheasant numbers will be down. Bogenschutz says they’ll get a true idea of bird numbers when they take their annual survey next month.They’ll run the survey from August 1st through the 15th. He says they survey all regions of the state.Hunters took over one million pheasants last year — an increase of 11-percent over 1999. The number of hunters in the field last season was down 17-percent.
