View attachment 9175I just left my cabin at Chamberlain. Most snow in ten or more years. With that said. The flock on our road is still healthy.
When you have this much snow, and prolonged extreme cold, the mortality rate is usually pretty high.
After this current storm I can't imagine that a lot of birds will survive. Yesterday eastern SD had an inch to an inch and a half of rain, then turned to freezing rain and more snow. Freezing rain today and more snow with winds 35-40 and gusts to 60. Not going to settle down until tomorrow. Lots of flooding going on. It's been a very cool winter in Arizona, but I'm so glad I wasn't back in SD this winter.[/QUO
I agree, I saw a few birds that had moved back to my place as the weather got nicer then 2 inches of rain, followed by five inches of snow and the super high winds. I doubt many birds made it through the past two days. Horrible weather conditions for any wildlife. I have about 300 yards of ditch to dig out with a scoop shovel in order to get the water to move to the township road and then into CRP. Water is just sitting on top of the snow and not moving which is bad due to my house not being far from where the water has to flow by. Thank the Lord temps are suppose to be close to 30 until Tuesday then it starts to melt fast. SDviking
from what i can tell by the DOT cams, it looks like a heavy snow cover and cold temps in SD.
how are the birds handling this prolonged stretch of snow cover?
I live near Aberdeen, but its similar statewide in pheasant range. After the blizzard of 3/14, its total devastation of pheasant populations. Nearly all cover blown in with hard packed snow from 60mph winds, everything ice covered, no exposed fields to feed in. Worst winter since 1997. It will take years for pheasants to recover from this.
Your people in the SE part of the state probably escaped the worst of this winter but I know the Watertown and Aberdeen areas have been hit hard. A friend in Watertown said all the rain last week took the snow depth down but there is still a lot of snow. Two feet on the level and with that rain it has turned into concrete. No way any birds that have survived to his point can dig down to any food source. I know from my daughter it's not good in the Redfield are either. Guess the road survey in August will tell us a lot but my guess is that many areas are going to see significant reductions in numbers.