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I would say Iowa will be similar to past years (anecdotally). I do think conditions were much more favorable this year for the roadside counts with heavier dews on the calm, sunny mornings when they were running counts. Unfortunately, there has been a ton of CRP mowed over the past month or so...

Lots of CRP cut here in Central & Eastern Iowa. Most of what has been cut are fields that I've never seen mowed before in the last several years.

Was happy to catch a couple of juvenile roosters on camera the other day.

I've shot about half a dozen huns in central/eastern iowa each of the last few years. I would say I probably push a covey of them on 10% of my hunts - generally out of corn stubble. They are around, but certainly not something worth targeting. Very hard to pinpoint where they may be, and purely...

That makes sense. I think I would target a late August type burn if possible to try and get some growth back, but I tend to agree with your point that most nests are in "old growth" that probably wouldn't have time to grow back in that short window during the fall.

We have generally always defaulted to burning in the Spring as it seems like that was conventionally the way to do it. However, I've recently become more intrigued with the idea of prescribed burning in the fall, for a couple of reasons. 1) Supposed to be more beneficial to forbes than grasses...

Lucky you - we are bone dry here in Eastern Iowa.

What area of the state was this in (roughly)? Great to hear. Interestingly, i stumbled upon a big brood of partridge in eastern Iowa this weekend. Couldn't have been more than a few days old, I could have caught them each by hand. Pretty cool to see.

Made it out after the rain and was happy to see some of the new crp seeding (Leopold mix) coming in. Also, hard to see here but finally getting some switch grass sprouting where I killed the RCG this spring in old low laying pasture ground. Plan is to get out and mow it all here around the...

Kicked up a couple of very young/small chicks yesterday afternoon in Easter Iowa

How are you going about spraying cool seasons out of Switch? Hitting it with Glyphosate early before the NWSG are actively growing?

Here is part of the ~10 acres I sprayed gly this spring to kill the reeds canary grass. Drilled Cave In Rock SG Memorial Day weekend. Here is one of our corn plots. Needs some rain but coming relatively well. This is just a random picture of where we burned this spring. Few Forbes starting to...

I don't think it's necessarily ideal from a hunting perspective, but we will run our dogs on our property 2-3x prior to the season (usually not until September/October. By that time the birds are old enough to not have to worry about them getting caught by the dogs or anything. We are out...

Just wanted to get a thread going for any updates from people starting to see broods this summer. Heard of one sighting last week in Eastern IA, however I'm not completely sold. Have not seen any yet out at our farm the past couple of weekends. I am optimistic that this dry weather should lead...

Ended up being later than I would have liked, but ended up doing a third spraying of the RCG and finally got the SG drilled this weekend. The upshot of it being so dry is that these low lying areas tend to be pretty wet if there's been much rain, so the spraying and drilling was much easier...

Thanks for sharing - great resource!

I've posted on here before looking for some input on trying to rid a few areas of canary grass (mostly lower laying non-crp ground or old pasture). What I gathered is that it would be a significant challenge, but I figured we'd give it a try. Burned about 1 1/2 months ago and then started a...

I've found much better success late in the season for getting on new spots. I've got dozens of spots, and most of them have been acquired through in-person stops. The biggest "key" that I've found is making it as easy as possible for the landowners to say "yes". Most landowners that are going...

Have you tried nine bark as a shrubby plant? We had very good luck with those in our planting in pretty sandy soil.

Would like to have a thread for people to share pictures of their habitat, whether established or in the process of. Shelter belts, food plots, new seedings, renovations, tree cuttings, whatever it is. If no pictures to share, what are projects you have planned before next fall? For me, it's...