Pheasant winter kill

[James O]

I was wondering how pheasants are doing with all this snow and ice you have been getting in sw part of state.I hope the birds can make it through this tough
Winter.I realy enjoyed hunting there last year and hope to hunt there again next year.The fish and game said it had quite a it less acres of habitat this year than they had last year that can't be good for pheasant population.

 

[2XCOCKERS]

http://www.ultimatepheasanthunting.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21877



Agreed with the above, on one drive down I-94 from fargo to Bismarck after the huge Christmas (most recent big storm) storm I saw at least 5 herds of deer, one approaching what seemed to be 200+. I've seen deer yard/herd up but this was bigger than i'd ever seen in person. Pheasants in some areas had a hard time and've died grouped up trying to survive (Fargo area where they had more rain/freezing rain) but just yesterday saw about 30 roosters/hens hanging out in a open field along the interstate and many more in farmyards. Yes, open fields...some areas including still during the season had snow blown off it enough to give up food. These areas are where I've seen the majority of wildlife.

At one point the statistic for snow was, "through December it's the most amount of snow on record for that time period". At least in Bismarck that was the case. The east side of the state (Jamestown and east) has gotten much less snow and may have better attrition rates. Still too early to tell though IMO for next year. As we know it'll really come down to how much we flood this year if at all (the corps has stated they're ready and all downstream is ready) and then how nesting goes. That's my report I guess, but heading out again later this week and will try to report what I see again.

 

[Lazy Ike]

From where things were in mid January things have gone as well as we could reasonably expect. The snow quit and the temperatures warmed up. Where I am at we had a lot of snow but enough wind with it that the hilltops opened up allowing the deer and pheasants to get to food. I don't see them out all day anymore trying to get something to eat. A good long warm-up starts today.

 

[Foggy1956]

How did the rest of winter and early spring work out?