With hunting season wrapping up at the end of the month, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is giving hunters one last shot at small game with the release of extra pheasants.
FOX43 hit the field with the PGC in York County for a release and tagged along as hunters made the most of these final days. Hunter Evan Stouffer started his Wednesday early, looking for those pheasants.
“I’ve been out here since about 6:30 this morning, yeah, waiting for the sun to come up, waiting for the truck to pull through,” Stouffer said.
State Game Warden Cameron Murphy helped organize the release of 130 birds in York County.
“The idea is the crew gets the birds out as quickly as they can,” Murphy said. “Lets them spread out a little bit. Then the hunters can go after them and see if they can find them.”
With avian flu impacting some commercial farms, the PGC asked suppliers to raise extra pheasants as a precaution, in case of any health issues within the flock.
“It’s a great thing we have a couple extra birds this year to put out and give people that last opportunity to harvest one before they have to wait until next year,” Murphy said.
The commission is releasing more than 8,000 birds through Thursday across six regions of the Commonwealth.
Stouffer, even though this is his first-year hunting, is already counting down to next season.
“I mean, it’s a lot of fun. Getting outside, having an opportunity like this through the pheasant stocking program. It’s nice to be able to get out once or twice a week,” Stouffer said.