Snowfall - It could get pretty tough out there

C

cyclonenation10

Well-known member
More snow than I expected.. had some great hunting over the weekend, but boy was the walking tough. Lots of nice stands of prairie are effectively barren now.
This could get pretty tough on the birds if it doesn't warm up here soon - thankfully the temps and winds haven't been terrible, so the birds should be OK for a while, but I worry that it could get pretty tough if we end up with snowpack thru February..
 
I'm in Minnesota and its the same here now.

All the grass is flattened, some areas have drifted up deep already. Hunting is going to be tough the last month of the season simply from walking stand point.

Quite a change from the last few seasons when it was barren all the way through December.
 
And the cattails haven’t frozen, the birds are fine out in the cattails but man and dog can’t go out there. Lots of snow cover and they may never freeze hard enough to walk.

Walking deer trails in the cattails with an aggressive dog pushing through is my favorite hunt.
 
How much snow did you guys get down there? Here in Watertown, SD, it was reported 7". Grass is done for now, but the cattails provide a haven that will get the birds through.
 
Golden Hour said:
Thanks. Do you guys have a lot of cattail sloughs or do the pheasants rely on CRP type grasses?
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In my part of the state (south Central) it's mostly grasses, there isn't much flat ground that isn't farmed. Most of where there is enough cover to support pheasants is to hilly to have sloughs or cattail patches.
 
I been reading a lot and it sounds like pheasant mortality due to snow or cold is rare. The worst appears to be when a winter storm rolls in quick and birds are caught out in thin cover during the day. The combo of cold+wind+snow at the right time can kill a good number of birds.

One thing I hadn't put as much thought into is snow cover over feeding areas. It is still rare for pheasants to die of starvation, but a big difference is body condition of hens after winter. When feeding is easy nesting and re-nesting are more successful and brood sizes are larger. When the hens fat reserves are depleted and it was a tough winter the inverse is true.
 
Bob Peters said:
I been reading a lot and it sounds like pheasant mortality due to snow or cold is rare. The worst appears to be when a winter storm rolls in quick and birds are caught out in thin cover during the day. The combo of cold+wind+snow at the right time can kill a good number of birds.

One thing I hadn't put as much thought into is snow cover over feeding areas. It is still rare for pheasants to die of starvation, but a big difference is body condition of hens after winter. When feeding is easy nesting and re-nesting are more successful and brood sizes are larger. When the hens fat reserves are depleted and it was a tough winter the inverse is true.
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Not always the case, but it seems like high winds accompany the bad snow events, and I’m always surprised how exposed the picked cornfields are after a blizzard with 30-50 mph winds…and the birds are good at rooting around for food…hopefully there’s some good thermal cover nearby…cattails, cedar belts, or both, ideally…freezing rain is bad, especially if they’re caught out in the open…they’ll face into the wind and suffocate when the precip freezes their nostrils shut…that’s when you can see dozens or hundreds of birds dead, out in the open…bad stuff. Seems like the first 15+ years of hunting SD we had lots of blizzards…’93-2008…2010 I was out there when the metrodome collapsed…that was a monster, too…hard to hunt…😶‍🌫️
 
Really deep snow and/or a layer of ice is bad news. Usually we don't get big, vast systems of ice. It's more of a localized event.

This is the coldest and start to winter in 11 years.
 
Bob Peters said:
I been reading a lot and it sounds like pheasant mortality due to snow or cold is rare. The worst appears to be when a winter storm rolls in quick and birds are caught out in thin cover during the day. The combo of cold+wind+snow at the right time can kill a good number of birds.

One thing I hadn't put as much thought into is snow cover over feeding areas. It is still rare for pheasants to die of starvation, but a big difference is body condition of hens after winter. When feeding is easy nesting and re-nesting are more successful and brood sizes are larger. When the hens fat reserves are depleted and it was a tough winter the inverse is true.
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I think you're spot on- plus the increased predation when snow knocks out a bunch of habitat. Makes a whole lot of hens pretty easy targets for aerial predators.
 
Yeah, I frigin knew it would happen. Got a trip planed for the week before Christmas. If it doesn't melt off which I bet, it won't. We all know what that means. There will be a hard crust on top. No way..
 
When I had cows the pheasants would be in the feeding areas picking up whatever.

Now that I don’t I go out with the loader and scrape off some lanes across the field to allow the birds to get down to whatever they can find if the snow gets deep or there is ice. Sometimes I would see 50 or more birds in a couple hundred yards of cleared lane, don’t know where they all came from.

Back in the day everyone hauled grain to town with wagons, and everyone tried to get every last bushel on. This resulted in a few kernels here and there lost on the road. We would always see pheasants lining the road to pick that up, along with grit. Now everything goes to town in covered semis.
 
We got 6-7" I would say. The mono block of switch grass did it's thing and is laying over with the snow on top of it. On the windward edges, the cover is blown full for 20 yards or so. Sorghum is looking good and is getting pounded. It all made for a great hunt Sunday morning. One of the guests was a high school aged boy, his dad says "he can't stop talking about it". The first time he had hunted there. That is the best compliment I could get. ☺️ My cousin shot one with some of the longest spurs I have ever seen.
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It's gonna be tough sledding in many areas moving forward because of deep snow. Seems like many areas in SD, MN, and IA have this problem now.
 
remy3424 said:
We got 6-7" I would say. The mono block of switch grass did it's thing and is laying over with the snow on top of it. On the windward edges, the cover is blown full for 20 yards or so. Sorghum is looking good and is getting pounded. It all made for a great hunt Sunday morning. One of the guests was a high school aged boy, his dad says "he can't stop talking about it". The first time he had hunted there. That is the best compliment I could get. ☺️ My cousin shot one with some of the longest spurs I have ever seen.
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That is awesome!
 
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