[Humptulips]

http://blogs.twincities.com/outdoors/2013/02/25/pheasant-hunting-pesticides-not-habitat-loss-leading-cause-of-grassland-birds-decline-study-says/

[treeswarper]

I was not aware that pesticides were used on alfalfa. Other than groundhogs and the occasional escaped cow, I wonder what the pest is? I do recall horse people buying alfalfa hay from our area because we didn't use pesticides or herbicides. I wonder if that has changed? We used to see a fair amount of roadkill pheasants on highway 2 from Waterville to Spokane. I didn't notice any the last time on that road. I didn't think about it much--just figured that bird hunting had gone the way of fishing.

[DIYSteve]

Odd article in all sorts of ways. Lumping indigenous species, to wit, Horned Larks and Vesper Sparrows, with introduced Ring-necked Pheasant is goofy. Ring-necked Pheasants have always been more populous in farmland than in true native grasslands (what's left of them). How far back did the research reach re destruction of grasslands? 90%+ of America's vast grasslands were destroyed decades ago, much 100+ years ago, replaced by farmland -- and as a result the population of native grassland bird species dramatically declined and range of most grassland species greatly contracted. Where do they get the numbers to compare the decline in respective bird species populations resulting from destruction of native grasslands from, say 1880 to 1940, to more recent declines due to pesticides?