Them Changes

BritChaser

BritChaser

Well-known member
I began hunting NW KS in the mid-90s. Hunting was so good. I had good luck hunting without a dog for five years and then it got even better when I got my first bird dog. My hunting partner and I sometimes had our four-bird limits before lunch.

This opening weekend we hunted what was an ideal pheasant habitat. It was a large grassy, weedy draw with some stranding water in the middle of a quarter and was surrounded exclusively by wheat stubble and corn stalks. Moreover, it was private ground.

No pheasants. Just a small covey of quail. Why?
 
It’s not a simple answer, it’s complex! Nebraska and Iowa were like that too and Kansas was like that until 2011 or so. It was unusual to not kill your limit and see many more that you could have killed! I for one didn’t appreciate what we had, I didn’t think it would ever go away!

Some of the things I believe that are the cause and while not scientifically proven include:
Large clean farming, with loss of small fields, fence rows, tree lines, etc,
Loss of habitat, a great deal of CRP has been taken out when corn was $8 bushel,
Weather, rain during nesting, drought and hail in the summer and ice and bitter cold in the winter,
Increased use of pesticides and herbicides,
Increased predators like coyotes, raccoons, fox and skunks. My buddies killed 20 coyotes in 3 nights with their thermal scopes in 3 contiguous sections,
Diseases like bird flu and screwworm in quail.

Nebraska and Kansas don’t farm for pheasants like South Dakota does. There’s habitat and farms leave food and they control predators better.

I don’t know the answer but I sure like to see it go back to how it was……..
 
I heard a big change is Kansas was the switch to a different type of wheat. It doesn't grow all tall so less susceptible to wind damage. After harvest it has shorter stubble and is not good habitat like the old stuff.
 
Bob Peters said:
I heard a big change is Kansas was the switch to a different type of wheat. It doesn't grow all tall so less susceptible to wind damage. After harvest it has shorter stubble and is not good habitat like the old stuff.
Click to expand...

That and the elimination of Milo. In the seventies most wheat stubble was left high and there were many miles of Milo. It was rare to see a corn field in many parts of the state. Soon the Milo disappeared and corn started to take over. There was a resurgence when CRP made sense then corn and weather took care of that. South Dakota has also had down years due to weather, but it bounced back because the structure was there. It will take several years to come back at all but it will never be what it was as long as the state only cares about deer and how many worthless acreage they can sign up
 
The only time in Iowa I can remember low bird numbers was after severe winters. Back in the early 2000s the bird numbers were so low, I didn't hunt them, and I had a dog. The few surviving birds were mostly around building sites with good conifer shelterbelts and active bins sites or livestock facilities. I don't think predators really have much to do with bird numbers.
 
Yes, I do believe that. I don't think they have a huge effect on the numbers. I think weather is the number one thing that effects the population....as long as you have the habitat. I think the raptors get more pheasants in my area than the furry ones.
 
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