2017 Pheasant SD Survey

UGuide, shhh, don't let us residents secrets out. We've been paying the game department for the last ten years. So it shows bird numbers are declining. When in reality they've been increasing. Add in all the pen raised birds they release on public lands and we are gonna have it great this year.
 
BigRand said:
UGuide, shhh, don't let us residents secrets out. We've been paying the game department for the last ten years. So it shows bird numbers are declining. When in reality they've been increasing. Add in all the pen raised birds they release on public lands and we are gonna have it great this year.
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Dig it! Dig it! Dig it!
 
UGUIDE said:
...........................................Basically GFP's report says....."PHEASANT HUNTING SUCKS, DO NOT COME TO STATE! " ...................
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What are you drinking? I didn't read that anywhere in their report.

I believe SD's GFPs and the states local economies thrive on "out of state" hunters license fees and what they spend on food, lodging, hunting supplies, booze, etc. just a PA does when it comes to Whitetail Deer hunting.

By the way, my wife and I will be out in SD again this year just as we have been doing for the past 18 years or so. Weeks before non-resident pheasant season begins and for a month during pheasant season regardless of the current pheasant population.
 
I have been truly confounded by the rhetoric on this board for the past 6 weeks or so...and yes, much of it originated by UGUIDE...maybe it is a joke? If so, it is delicious, and I have taken the bait hook, line, and sinker! But I think that is not the case...I think this is analagous to Copernicus' theory that the earth revolves around the sun...he was probably ostracized for years...UGUIDE is making similar claims...but I am ignorant, and don't claim to know much...for I am an unfrozen cave man bird hunter...I know nothing but the fact that I get a major rush from a flushing rooster that I knock down, and have it brought to me by a dog...do over...again and again! So if hens can forecast the weather, and the liberal left fake news media is tricking us, and biologists are fools, and drought is good for bird numbers, and we will all be proven wrong, even though the GFP brood count survey just proved us right...then I am good with it all!!!! My 25 years of SD bird hunting experience is not relevant...things is changing in bird land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More crown royal please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
benelli-banger said:
I have been truly confounded by the rhetoric on this board for the past 6 weeks or so...and yes, much of it originated by UGUIDE...maybe it is a joke? If so, it is delicious, and I have taken the bait hook, line, and sinker! But I think that is not the case...I think this is analagous to Copernicus' theory that the earth revolves around the sun...he was probably ostracized for years...UGUIDE is making similar claims...but I am ignorant, and don't claim to know much...for I am an unfrozen cave man bird hunter...I know nothing but the fact that I get a major rush from a flushing rooster that I knock down, and have it brought to me by a dog...do over...again and again! So if hens can forecast the weather, and the liberal left fake news media is tricking us, and biologists are fools, and drought is good for bird numbers, and we will all be proven wrong, even though the GFP brood count survey just proved us right...then I am good with it all!!!! My 25 years of SD bird hunting experience is not relevant...things is changing in bird land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More crown royal please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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BB, China just called and asked you to tone down the Rhetoric please!

Here's the stagerring news in the GFP report: "(CRP) represent the premium nesting habitat in the state
and have declined by 37% or 580,000 acres since 2007 (Figure 6). The combined availability of
hayland, small grains, and CRP has declined by 45% or 4.9 million acres since 1990 (Figure 7).
This represents an average daily loss of 500 acres for the past 27 years. During the 15-year
period of 1982 - 1997, 1.82 million acres of grassland were converted to cropland (U.S. GAO
2007). A more recent study found 1.84 million acres of grassland were lost, primarily to
conversion to cropland, from 2006 - 2012 (Reitsma et al. 2014). "

GFP and Dept of Tourism will reap what they sowed for the last 27+ years. I will reap what I sow for the last 15.

Residents will sing the praises of their cheap licenses and free hunting. They will reap what they sow as well.

SD codified law states that in as many words "not dollar 1 will be invited in private land in habitat where 1 or more doallrs is received by the landowner from a private party" http://law.justia.com/codes/south-dakota/2012/title41/chapter02/41-2-23

And their latest pheasant management plan will claim GOAL #1 "Goal #1: The SDGFP will partner with private landowners and other conservation
partners to conserve, restore, and manage habitats critical for pheasants and
other wildlife species."

I know very few private landowners, if any, who would consider GFP their "partner".

And oh by the way, the salmon and the crown don't make the tractor payment. and neither does the relationship. It is pure unadulterated cashflow. May sound harsh but it is the plain and simple truth.

Rhetoric might be words that someone else is not prepared to hear. Its time for an about face in this state and I hope pheasant fest can bring some energy and wisdom to help the state bird.
 
There is no doubt that the issue is habitat. And there is nobody on this board that has acknowledged the work that you are doing in that regard more than me. I have been traipsing around SD since 1993 and have seen the impact of habitat...again, another "blinding flash of the obvious". Seriously, you are doing what you need to in order to make your business work, and I hope it does work and you can make a nice living from your venture. And there is still an opportunity for hunters to come out and knock on doors, make some friends, and get a taste of hunting SD...and this is a good year to do it, as hunter #'s will be down--both resident and nonresident. I found the article in the Strib to be just fine...they did their job. It will be interesting to see how the MN pheasant report differs with that of E SD...the biologists seem baffled by the drop in E SD despite the lack of a harsh winter and having pretty well dodged the drought....
 
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I talked to one of the G,F&P guys who does some pheasant routes and he said his routes just don't have grass anymore. Most of the CRP and Native pastures he use to drive by are now row crops.
 
I have a little inside information that North Dakota's prime pheasant zone is just as bad. I know someone that interned with the DNR and was involved in the counts. The full timers told him it is the worst they've seen in 17 years! Of course this was to be our first year out of SD and into Hettinger ND.
 
3car said:
I talked to one of the G,F&P guys who does some pheasant routes and he said his routes just don't have grass anymore. Most of the CRP and Native pastures he use to drive by are now row crops.
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That's what leaves me scratching the old head. I think if all the grass or ideal cover mix moves west river and that's where the birds are is the survey really accurate if the route locations are based on where survey routes were initially setup?
 
UGUIDE said:
That's what leaves me scratching the old head. I think if all the grass or ideal cover mix moves west river and that's where the birds are is the survey really accurate if the route locations are based on where survey routes were initially setup?
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well, if they count 2 birds per mile in an area that has lost much of the habitat, you pretty well know to double that or more in areas that do have habitat...but i do get your point. i really don't care about the statewide number...i look at certain areas..but sure, the lack of habitat explains a certain amount of the change...but from year to year, is there that much habitat loss? I know there can be, but I know what I see now vs a year or two ago in my areas...and there hasn't been that big a change...so, if the count is down 35%, it is down 35%...the way I see it, anyway.
 
Talking with a worker at my hunting club this past weekend. He said for me to get most of my hunting in earlier this year as pen raised pheasants will be scarce here in IL as large orders are being put in now to ship out to SD. Prices for birds are going up as well he said. Supply and Demand. Any public land out there that borders one of these fancy high priced hunting operations? That's where I want to hunt this year! ��
 
There are some spots. I remember when I was younger we used to hunt a spot one hour before sunset because we knew the pheasants would be coming out of a field that a hunting outfit owned with released birds. The guy was never very fond of that and started driving back and forth down the road they would fly across honking his horn like mad. He really got mad when he got fined for wildlife harassment.
 
benelli-banger said:
There is no doubt that the issue is habitat. And there is nobody on this board that has acknowledged the work that you are doing in that regard more than me. I have been traipsing around SD since 1993 and have seen the impact of habitat...again, another "blinding flash of the obvious". Seriously, you are doing what you need to in order to make your business work, and I hope it does work and you can make a nice living from your venture. And there is still an opportunity for hunters to come out and knock on doors, make some friends, and get a taste of hunting SD...and this is a good year to do it, as hunter #'s will be down--both resident and nonresident. I found the article in the Strib to be just fine...they did their job. It will be interesting to see how the MN pheasant report differs with that of E SD...the biologists seem baffled by the drop in E SD despite the lack of a harsh winter and having pretty well dodged the drought....
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this is consistent with what i said about the biologists........they are clueless, they don't know anymore than the average hunter.......cut the payroll!
 
Hockeybob said:
Talking with a worker at my hunting club this past weekend. He said for me to get most of my hunting in earlier this year as pen raised pheasants will be scarce here in IL as large orders are being put in now to ship out to SD. Prices for birds are going up as well he said. Supply and Demand. Any public land out there that borders one of these fancy high priced hunting operations? That's where I want to hunt this year! ��
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This site is getting some good inside scoop! Supply and demand at its finest!

I remember the years the counts were down 63% and a lot of the high end places had a 50% cancellation rate due to corporate groups cancelling. Could see that happening again. Not sure if that was 2012 or other???
 
hunter94 said:
this is consistent with what i said about the biologists........they are clueless, they don't know anymore than the average hunter.......cut the payroll!
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Not to do a neutral drop on the tranny here but (did I just date myself) the GFP and PF do have some great biologists and do some great work. They just can't move into or compete in the space where habitat loss is occuring (private land). The .org's and .gov's cannot compete with the .com's (monsanto, bayer, CHS, Cargill, DOW, Pioneer, etc).
 
"the biologists seem baffled by the drop in E SD despite the lack of a harsh winter and having pretty well dodged the drought...."

it's great when you know what you know......to validate your credentials, i would expect to have heard talk about a pending study of bird trends in this part of SD....being baffled seems like a head scratching activity to me, but then maybe they are laying a plan for a case study down the road......i mean, reading numbers is elementary, how about some research??
 
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