Recent content by Makintrax73

Thanks SD. The waterways were mowed last year as the farmer needed the grass for his cattle. That's why I was thinking there might be something that can reach the dirt, but I know it's always an uphill battle competing against turf grass. Not sure why turf grass on my farm kills damn near...

Western IL We have had good success at the farm establishing NWG filter strips. The filter strips are fed by grass waterways which due to age and mowing have become rye/brome grass dominated (not sure which). I'm considering trying to frost seed into the waterways perhaps 100' up from the NWG...

Been doing a sharpie trip for several years running. The first year was _rough_. As a pheasant hunter getting the idea of good pheasant cover out of my head was a challenge. Have done MT and ND (several areas). The birds are there if you put in the work, and pay attention to the cover...

My question is why not? It would be reasonably easy to test with a few field biologists and some volunteers. Pay a few farmers in diverse places $50 or $100ac to take part in a control experiment - certainly not outside of their budget. Get a rough estimate of beneficial insect abundance, and...

Here is an article on NeoNic affects on birds from Cornell Univ he sent over https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/neonic-nation-is-widespread-pesticide-use-connected-to-grassland-bird-declines/

No, it certainly took a bit of effort. I had never been familiar with alternative practices other than hearing the word "organic". I saw a "cover crop" demonstration field on I-39 and it sparked an interest. When my original farmer retired I began by seeing who was researching cover crops and...

I've been of a mind that much of the incredible decline in pheasant and quail hunting East of the Miss might be related to to widespread use of RoundUp. It's use seemed to coincide with the decline, and we don't really see bird numbers in many areas even if there is habitat. I had a couple...

IDK, about the current situation, but when I was there in 2019 for sharpies I saw a couple hunters at the hotel. Never went to a spot and found it occupied. Saw way more hunters in Stanley, ND than Plentywood. Is it opening weekend pheasant that's the problem?

KS publishes pretty good bird reports. If you compare the drought monitor maps from broading season, the bird reports, and WIHA maps you ought to figure a plan. My buddy and I just finished our annual NW KS pheasant hunt. Total bust on pheasants, but saw 7 coveys in 3 days (4 on WIHA, 3 on...

NW KS the last two days. A good portion of the spots we have seen birds past years are literally bare dirt. We do not hunt terribly hard by this forum's standards, 12 miles in 2 days. Saw exactly 1 rooster that flushed wild. 3 hens in the 1 standby spot that still had decent grass. 4...

However, quail were a different story....definitely saw more quail on the public land this year, and bigger coveys. Not sure if that is more birds, or simply hunting smarter. Either way we saw way more quail this year vs last WIHA vs WIHA. The biggest issue is they were invariably at the back...

Seemed like numbers were down at least 25%, but maybe more. Hard to tell exactly because we hunted a couple really good private tracts last year with a lot of birds. This year almost all WIHA. The birds seemed way more spooky this year, so it could also be simply not seeing them but they were...

Just finishing up our annual hunt. This year we could not get access to the private land we had access to the last two years (health issues with the owner) so hunted WIHA with one private tract we could get on. Conditions were difficult. None of the dogs performed well. I assume the very dry...

We only checked a couple of our birds, but didn't find any grasshoppers in the birds we shot. There were certainly areas that held a LOT of grasshoppers. We did see some birds going into and out of cut wheat so they may be transitioning off of grasshoppers at this time.

Just back from 4 days in ND chasing sharpies and huns. Hunted NW this year, and that was a big mistake. Found one field with a mix of grass, snowberries, and cut wheat that was good. Saw a decent number of sharpies and a big covey of huns there and killed a few. Mix of snowberry leaves (? I...