InTheTin
Which would you rather be - a pheasant or a turkey?
Both are fed, watered and protected throughout the year.
One
may be killed during the shooting season; the other
will be killed at Christmas. (Or, given your location, Thanksgiving.)
(Edit)
Gaseous
I have seen birds fall while I'm flying back to my LZ.
Pheasant tend to take no notice of extraneous noise if it's in the middle of a drive because the beaters are already making a noise to try to make them fly and the guns are shooting. If there's a loud/unusual noise near them
before a drive begins, there's a very good chance they'll fly off to another wood. Not far away but, sod's law, it's usually on someone else's land (if near the boundary) or to where the shoot has already been. Result: the guns and beaters arrive and there are either no birds or a much reduced number.
When keepers go round checking where most of the birds are early on the morning of a shoot, they do it quietly. I've been on shoots where what would have been a good drive has been ruined because some idiots on noisy quadbikes have ridden through earlier in the morning and spooked the birds.
Duck tend to circle around at height (if they were on a lake), and land again very quickly after the noise has gone; pheasant tend to land somewhere else and come back later, if they come back at all. If they find plenty of feed somewhere else, they may not.
Your
"LZ" How smart.
nouseforaname
If you don't want stir up your neighbours, study Mr Griffin's approach very carefully - and do the opposite.
(Read the link.)
FL