New to how this works... but will these late season rains have much effect on pheasants? On one hand it seems like the season was already "dead" after a coverless breeding season... on the other hand, maybe this will help get cover for the birds for the winter. Although maybe that is more for next year.
I've seen thoughts scattered here and there, but not simple and laid out...Opinions?
Like you said, this is just my opinion, i don't have any particular studies to back me up or anything. After looking at the rainfall (and yes my analysis is mostly based on only rainfall, which is one of the problems with it, and the rainfall is according to the NOAA website, so it might not be exact) it really seems like some places will be a little better than last year, and some worse. Say Morgan and Washington counties for example, they got more rain in April, May and June (the important months for new nesting cover to grow) than they did last year, while Yuma got less than last year in the same months. But Yuma County in August and July got anywhere from the same to more rain than Morgan and Washington this year, and rain during this time is very important for the tall warm season grasses to really take off right at the end of the growing season. So it is possible (not incredibly likely, but definitely possible) that Yuma's birds could have had more late hatches, because of the late rain, and the same for the other counties, but especially Yuma. But in September Morgan and Washington may have gotten too much rain, in that any late nesting birds could have been flooded out, or chicks gotten too wet, while Yuma didn't get quite as rain much as those other two (but this only applies
if there were late hatches). So, in conclusion, i think the birds will be slightly up from last year in some counties, like Morgan and Washington, and slightly down from last year in places like Yuma that got less rain when they needed it. But the birds will probably be hard to find, even harder than last year, because there's gonna be so much more cover than last year with almost the same bird numbers. But all this rain will definitely help with next year's nesting cover. Thanks for reading my novel about pheasant population predictions (if you actually took the time to read it).
p.s. This could be totally and completely wrong and all this may have been a waste of time.
