ICE! Bad news for birds....

Chestle

Chestle

Well-known member
Just talked with the folks we know and hunt with in SD.

Ice plastered the area. Some places covered with an inch of it.

Dead pheasant everywhere. Half the pre-storm number showing up at the cattle feed lots to pick grain.

This does not bode well for next year.

I'll still be going though.
 
I'll just generically say Central SD. I don't like to name towns or even counties. There's enough competition as it is.

Apparently it was kind of spotty. Some places got plastered with ice an inch thick and a few miles away it wasn't nearly as bad.

Just happens that the area I usually frequent got plastered.
 
I do not know where you are talking about. We have, ice it is tough getting around. I have not seen any dead pheasants, did see some live ones in cover crops today. There are some eating with the cows. It could be a tough winter. Hopefully we have done enough things to get them through.
 
Ice storms can be much like hail storms. Some are wide swath, some are narrow paths. Some spots have complete localized devastation and then down the road everything is fine.
 
Chestle said:
Just talked with the folks we know and hunt with in SD.

Ice plastered the area. Some places covered with an inch of it.

Dead pheasant everywhere. Half the pre-storm number showing up at the cattle feed lots to pick grain.

This does not bode well for next year.

I'll still be going though.
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I will take the bait I call b/s. Till I see some pics or pheasant forever news...

I was text n a guy from this forum daily last 4-5 days 3 guys limited daily public land.. I seen the pics no ice covered earth. .

If this is the case I do believe its central or a part of state with no winter habitat but I think someone is pulling your leg.. Show some dead pheasants every wear... Its been decint warm most WK just windy
 
LOL! Yeah, you think it's BS. Fine by me.

And no, since I'm not there I have no pics. I will take the word of the man that lets me hunt his ground and that I have known a very, very long time.

It's not the whole state I'm sure. It is that part of SD I happen to hunt. Bird numbers were down there this year and looks like they'll be farther down next year.
 
Chamberlain birds seem fine. Not hunting. (Fishing and working). Heard and seen plenty. Feeding is not a problem here.
 
Three of us hunted the Aberdeen area the 3 days following the rain. The road conditions were tough (ice covered) but improved each day. We found healthy birds in every place we hunted (all public). We found water on top of ice but no ice on the trees, grass or cattails. We also didn't find any dead birds or any that had trouble escaping their hiding places.

I am sure other places could be worse but from the traveling we did in the NE part of the state, I would say they were limited. The Sisseton area had the worse conditions we encountered. Again, that area was about 5 miles wide. Still had ice on the barb wire fences on Friday.
 
My dog retrieved a dead bird that appeared to be iced up from the storm. Its the only one I saw affected but I am guessing there are more dead from the storm.
 
Well I just shot 3 birds in a half hour in the same area were that froze up bird was found. Still a lot of birds around and never did see another froze up bird.
 
Another broad sweeping generalization attempting to make a "forward looking" statement.

The SEC warns people about this.

We have been hunting the last 3 weeks of season. 49 on Friday. Sunburns yesterday. No ice here and no reports of it from any UGUIDE camps.
 
haymaker said:
I just took a trip to Artesien SD, in between Huron and Mitchell. Much less ice than around here.
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I made a typo mistake. I meant to say much less ice around there instead of here. Less ice the farther south I went. I was disking my gravel road to break up the ice. I have not seen any dead birds.
 
3car said:
My dog retrieved a dead bird that appeared to be iced up from the storm. Its the only one I saw affected but I am guessing there are more dead from the storm.
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Bummer... Was his nasal cavity iced over or exploded from water rain freeze n ice in nose???

Shot a bird a WK or so ago end of cold stretch here in MN had total empty crop if they run outta food & them storm hit them birds are in trouble...
 
Chestle said:
LOL! Yeah, you think it's BS. Fine by me.

And no, since I'm not there I have no pics. I will take the word of the man that lets me hunt his ground and that I have known a very, very long time.

It's not the whole state I'm sure. It is that part of SD I happen to hunt. Bird numbers were down there this year and looks like they'll be farther down next year.
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Have your buddy who let's u hunt his land snap a pic on his cell phone & shoot you a text with a pic of the pheasant death area...

I don't doubt he mita seen a bird or found 1 dead but massive death this early in winter is rare the bird I shot with empty. Crop still had plenty of yellow fat around breast plate...

We had rain turn to glare ice wear bird was shot same storm that hit SD...

Is there any winter habitat in the guys land??? Or just crops & crp??? Birds need some good winter habitat close to food... Don't help ice death though...
 
Dog kinda had it chewed up too much to tell. But thats the only bird she has found this year and it was right after a huge ice storm. Its possible it was a cripple that the ice storm just finished off. Like I said later on that I shot 3 roosters fairly quick yesterday so the death numbers are still one so far!!
 
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