I strapped on some snowshoes and hiked back in to the property that I manage for hunting. I saw a few birds, but didn't let Sage run through the food plot or cattails to the extent that she may have wanted to. My food plot is from 2018 (it was supposed to be refreshed this year, but it didn't happen) and the bulk of the corn has been picked clean. Some of the soybeans have been eaten and other, easily accessible beans hadn't been touched. I know there's a whole can of worms surrounding beans, but am only mentioning what I saw. I didn't climb into the cattails, but based on history and tracks, I'm confident they are able to hide adequately. The biggest blessing in my area (as well as many others) was that the early snow prevented a neighbor from getting a row of corn out of a low area. I will try to get some of the video uploaded, but man, the traffic in there was simply incredible.
I get pretty anxious sometimes during the winter regarding the fate of the pheasant, but like A5 mentioned, it takes a prolonged cold/snow to have devastating population loss. Pheasants can hunker down and survive for 2 or even 3 days without too much detriment. With this warm weather (30's here recently) they have been very active the past few days. So far, so good. I don't think this winter has taken any more or any less pheasants than either of the previous two. Granted, the most 'blizzardy' months are ahead, but they don't stick around like the early December snows. If we can get an average nesting season this spring, I am very confident that we'll see increases in most places across the state. If we get an amazing nesting season (not too wet, not too dry, lots of bugs for the chicks to eat), it will be a boon year. This is all in my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt and a shot of Tabasco.