Pheasants hit hard by Minnesota winter.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Winter has taken another deadly turn for ring-necked pheasants in Minnesota.

Last weekend's storm delivered a one-two punch of snow and icy rains across the state's pheasant range. While the storm didn't kill many pheasants, it formed a hard ice crust that will make it difficult, if not impossible, for birds to find waste grains, such as corn and soybeans, that sustain them during the winter.

Department of Natural Resources biologists say this winter hasn't been as bad for pheasants as the winter of 1996-97, but it is the worst in four years. Storms came early to southern Minnesota in November and haven't let up.

"With pheasants, you hope for about 50 percent mortality during the winter. I think we should be thinking of more than that this year," said Kurt Haroldson, the DNR's chief pheasant biologist. "It's hard to say what we'll have for mortality, but I'd say we're getting around 70 percent."

Minnesota has about 100,000 resident and nonresident pheasant hunters, and this is the sort of winter they fear. Snow has become so deep that pheasants have mostly abandoned safe cattail refuges and are wintering in windrows and wooded areas. In much of the pheasant range, volunteers have been filling corn cribs since December to help feed pheasants, an effort that will save some birds, as long as feeders are put in safe areas, biologists say.

"People are feeding pheasants (in open areas) along the highway, and we were picking up five to six birds a week that had been hit by cars," said Dave Soehren, DNR area wildlife manager in Appleton in western Minnesota. "Yes, we've got an awful lot of snow, and I'm sure predation losses will be higher. But it's encouraging that we're still seeing birds out and about. What's saved us so far is we haven't had those two- and three-day blizzards like we had in `96-97. We haven't had the extreme wind chills and snow that kill them on a large scale."

Ken Varland, the DNR's regional wildlife supervisor in New Ulm, described this winter's kill of pheasants as "significant." He agreed that the absence of large-scale blizzards has spared many birds, but deep snows are making it difficult for ringnecks to find food.