To the south, there are additional areas to try, such as the new Turtle Valley Wildlife Area in west-central Walworth County.

"I saw four pheasant broods in just a short time on this 2,300-acre-plus parcel," said James Jackley, a former wildlife biologist in the area. "I know most CRP and other habitat in the county has birds as well."

While there is some limited public hunting available, most of the habitat is on private land.

"If you can get permission, there should be good hunting on private land," Jackley said.

Rock County has more CRP land than Walworth, and active grassland management has provided more public hunting opportunities in this area.

Buenzow, who also manages Green and LaFayette counties, said, "Check out the areas near Evansville and Albany. There will be more hens than roosters, but these areas have been managed in the past three or four years. In fact, some areas were burned last spring and will provide excellent pheasant habitat when winter comes." These counties have not been stocked for years. Now that there is suitable grassland, pheasant numbers have been strong, and no additional stocking has been necessary.

"The west-central counties really have been standing out the past couple of years," said Mezera about Dunn, Pierce, St. Croix, Eau Claire and Polk counties. "They are seeing some very high crowing counts. We do put a lot of money in those counties for grassland management, and pheasant stamp dollars, and so do our cooperators like Pheasants Forever. I guess you could say that this is one area where the habitat work is paying off as far as the pheasant population."

The DNR expects high rooster densities and good hunting in west-central Wisconsin this fall. Areas with unharvested corn and good upland cover produce the most flushes, and preliminary crow counts suggested good production.

"Spring weather was great for brood production," said DNR wildlife biologist Harvey Halvorsen of St. Croix County. "We had no cold rains or flooding, and last year there were reports of great hen flushes. The wild population looks excellent, but we still haven't reached that magic bubble of five roosters per square mile yet. Regardless, our crow counts are up about 30 percent.

"Unfortunately, the habitat has changed," continued Halvorsen. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife has initiated a cover conversion on many WPAs, so a lot of the land is in corn. This can be OK if you hunt the edges of the corn, especially when it is adjacent to CRP grass or prairie."

So when you go out to hunt this winter, remember to focus on good habitat. Even if that habitat didn't have pheasants in October and November, the birds should be there in December. Thick grassland and good cover will act as a magnet as the snow gets deeper.