A Welcome Respite for the Pheasants

Golden Hour

Golden Hour

Well-known member
After nearly two months of dealing with snow and cold and wind, the past few days have been incredibly pleasant. We are seeing a fair amount of melting happening and while I haven't been out in the country, I'll be on the road later this week and will be able to ascertain whether or not any of the fields are starting to open up for scratching. I know I've mentioned this before, but we have been incredibly fortunate here in my area of the state. Even though we did receive freezing rain and a good pile of snow, we are faring much better than our friends to both the north and the south. I will continue to pray for things to continue this direction. I'd be surprised if we didn't get another snow fall and the potential for a cold spell is ever-present, but in my gut, I believe that we have crested the worst of winter.
 
Golden Hour said:
I believe that we have crested the worst of winter
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I think so too. I'm east of you in Central MN. The forecast through at least the middle of February looks warmer than usual. Once we start to get towards March, the angle of the sun really starts to have some power.

The silver lining is that we're still in a drought so any moisture will be beneficial in the long run.
 
Spent the day traveling from Watertown to the Huron area and down toward Mitchell. Really good news. Lots of fields have the snow disappearing from the tops of knolls and in areas that didn’t get blown in. Especially the fields that were plowed. The black topsoil really absorbs the rays. Hundreds of pheasants are taking advantage of being able to scratch easily for their food. Hopefully, the sunshine and warmer temps will continue. They’re tough buggers, but I am sure they’re happy for things to be a bit easier. Maybe not as happy as I am.
 
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I was in the Mitchell/Huron/Howard area around 1/20, 1/21, 1/22….enough snow around vegetation and cover to be a PITA, but crop fields were not drowning in snow at all…a few inches, not feet…but where there was vegetation, different story. Further East, and North East, much more snow. Birds were seemingly ok where I was…snow is great insulation, so tucking into cattails full of snow makes nice igloos. Ice could foul that up, but that wasn’t present where I was to any degree. Fingers crossed!
 
Golden Hour said:
Spent the day traveling from Watertown to the Huron area and down toward Mitchell. Really good news. Lots of fields have the snow disappearing from the tops of knolls and in areas that didn’t get blown in. Especially the fields that were plowed. The black topsoil really absorbs the rays. Hundreds of pheasants are taking advantage of being able to scratch easily for their food. Hopefully, the sunshine and warmer temps will continue. They’re tough buggers, but I am sure they’re as happy for things to be a bit easier. Maybe not as happy as I am.
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Glad to hear you saw some progress made toward better conditions. Funny how all the claims of seeing all these dead pheasants lying around on the snow have calmed down. As discussed previously, I'm guessing if there was much accuracy to the stories, the instances were occurring on or near preserves. i.e.: flare nare pseudo pheasants, released by the hundreds/thousands, who have the survival skills of a radish. Other than a few that've been hit by cars, I've seen exactly zero wild ones that appeared to succumb to the elements. I assume your experience has been similar???
 
I didn't get the chance to talk a state trapper who was scheduled to be at a Outdoors event but a local conservation officer shed some light on the subject.

He said yes there may be more losses with pen raised birds but it is common for the freezing rain/drizzle to kill birds. There nostrils freeze shut and the birds suffocate.
Yes he did know of this happening and had witnessed it before.

I never doubted haymaker or the trapper I just didn't know how they were finding the carcasses. The C.O. said birds settle at the downside of a tree / brush and succumb there.
Birds in thick brushy cover grass,cattails willows,or under cedar trees are way more likely to survive.
 
Weimdogman said:
I didn't get the chance to talk a state trapper who was scheduled to be at a Outdoors event but a local conservation officer shed some light on the subject.

He said yes there may be more losses with pen raised birds but it is common for the freezing rain/drizzle to kill birds. There nostrils freeze shut and the birds suffocate.
Yes he did know of this happening and had witnessed it before.

I never doubted haymaker or the trapper I just didn't know how they were finding the carcasses. The C.O. said birds settle at the downside of a tree / brush and succumb there.
Birds in thick brushy cover grass,cattails willows,or under cedar trees are way more likely to survive.
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Right. I've heard of that too. The freezing drizzle killing wild birds, who are hunkered down as much as possible, but just can't avoid suffocation. I was referring to claims that they're finding dead pheasants, just lying around on the snow. I'm guessing these are pen-reared birds, if it's happening at all. We both know a wild pheasant won't just sit down & accept the icy hand of death. He'll try to beat it any way possible, until every conceivable option is expended.
 
The birds face into the wind to
keep it from blowing into their feathers…so if they’re caught out of good cover, and freezing rain is accompanied by much wind, it’s a bad combo. But in good cover, not such a big deal.
 
carptom1 said:
That’s ok as the pheasant trucks won’t dump the state birds out until late September right??😂😂
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That's actually a bit premature. They usually wait until the Friday before opening day; then periodically throughout the season. I've got a buddy who tells me exactly which spots & when, but that's classified.
 
Did see a few more dead hens along fence rows today due to the high winds and rain/snow on Tuesday night. Was a little disappointing but did see a dozen hens in the shelterbelt around the farm just now which always gives me hope. Birds are eating up a 5 gallon bucket of corn every other day which I spread over my soybean field. Should help some.
 
Not sure if anyone saw, but there is a massive winter storm heading through the area today through Thursday. The area between Sioux Falls and Green Bay is supposed to get hammered. I am in the western Twin Cities and they are predicting up to 2 feet of snow. If we exceed 21.5 inches, it will be the second highest snow event ever recorded here. Number 1 is the infamous 1991 Halloween blizzard that dumped 27 inches.

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We are on the southern edge of this coming snow event. If it tracks a bit more north than they are thinking right now, we should be fine...calling for 6 to 12 inches here by Sioux City...I hope those estimates gim shows being forecasted, end-up being exaggerated totals. We just lost most of the snow cover we had...hope this isn't a winter that lasts into May. Maybe we will get some rain this year now that we are getting snow again.
 
Well the last 36 hours have been pretty brutal and we have another 36 hours to go. Guessing only six inches of snow so far but it has blown so hard that anywhere the pheasants went to hide has to be snowed in now. Winds will be gusting to close to 50 MPH tonight with snow. Winds start to calm down to the upper teens by tomorrow night. But tomorrow night temps drop to minus 25. Pretty harsh.
 
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