A Welcome Respite for the Pheasants

We got lucky. About an inch of crusty stuff and then around 2 inches of fluff last night, that fluffy will be blowing around and drifting up now. Hope it ran out of steam a bit earlier than predicted for those north of me.
 
I have recorded about a foot of snow so far since Tuesday afternoon. 3 inches Tues, and another 8 or so since it started back up yesterday. Its difficult to tell exactly because of the drifting and wind now though.

I'm definitely not going to get 2 feet as some models and weather terrorists predicted.

Next week looks warmer again, right back into the 30's. So the melting will begin anew. It all helps with the drought in the long run, even if its not great for wildlife in the short term.
 
My area got about 10"-13", but I don't think the winds were as bad as they were predicting. So not really what the pheasants needed, but it could've been worse. Sioux Falls has had its 2nd wettest winter on record with almost 6" of precip so far. So that's a good thing. Still need another inch to tie the record set in 68-69. I could research this, I suppose, but I'd be interested to know, in an average winter, how much of the snow precip makes it into the ground, & how much evaporates &/or runs off via watersheds. And compare that to average rainfall in warmer seasons, when the ground's not frozen & there's no snow cover.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
how much of the snow precip makes it into the ground, & how much evaporates &/or runs off via watersheds.
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Not sure about your area, but up here there wasn't much frost in the ground at all because it was so freaking dry heading into winter. Then we got a ton of snow in late December which has provided insulation all winter and prevented the ground from adding more frost. Sort of the same as on the lakes all winter. If that is true, then a good portion of the snow melt will actually end up in the ground.

Course, our lakes and rivers were very low already, so if it ends up in the watershed, that's just fine too.
 
Here in central MN, with all the wind, it's hard to tell...eight, I'd say. Fluffy snow, so the birds will be able to borrow into it. I would say most of this will evaporate. Hoping for a basketball tournament blizzard this year. That's where our spring moisture come from. Frost out? Usually, end of March..."April showers bring may flowers".
 
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I guessed that we had 10" and the official accounting was 9.8", so I felt good about picking up a thing or two about snowfall estimates in my 42 years here on the prairie, lol.

Anyway, prior to the storm, I had heard that we had received 22" of snow throughout the winter. The majority of which arrived in two blizzards. The biggest saving grace with the first storm was that the ice created a canopy in the cattails and the birds had prime thermal habitat for most of the winter, until the past week and a half when we had a fairly significant melt.

The past couple days were tough. We had hellacious winds that creating massive drifting. Plus, it's pretty darn cold. I always get nervous about pheasants, but they've been here in South Dakota before my grandpa was born and he was a 1st generation descendant of Norwegian immigrants. All that said, they've got 100+ generations of surviving our winters. This storm certainly wasn't what I wanted and I'm sure a few pheasants hunkered down in the wrong spot and were buried/suffocated. But, as always, the strongest/smartest will survive and the spring will be lush and green and buggy, making excellent brood rearing conditions, provided we don't get much more snow or have a very cold and wet spring.

Regardless, I've got a sneaking suspicion that Sage and I will be out as often as possible trying to put as many roosters in the freezer next fall/early winter. I'm planning to cruise around the country on Saturday and lay eyes on the birds that are out and about.
 
Golden Hour said:
I guessed that we had 10" and the official accounting was 9.8", so I felt good about picking up a thing or two about snowfall estimates in my 42 years here on the prairie, lol.
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Experience is everything. Some people can estimate walleye length pretty close. I can estimate tail feather length awfully close. You do snow depth. Cool skill to have. :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Experience is everything. Some people can estimate walleye length pretty close. I can estimate tail feather length awfully close. You do snow depth. Cool skill to have. :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
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Back when I caught and released over a 100 King salmon every year I could pretty much nail the weight within a pound. Now when I get only a handful or so a year I'm not so good. Was great while it lasted.
 
One of the best “special skills” I have witnessed in my friends is marking birds down at a distance. He also could see a cornflake chip off a clay birds from the 27yd line. Was quite an asset to our group up on the prairie. He claims it was a gift.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Experience is everything.
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Chyeah, except these meteorologists are spitting lies out on a daily basis, even WITH years of experience. Two feet of snow coming, records breaking, crippling winter storm for days in advance. Then...a whopping 12 inches.

I tell you, they just get paid to lie on a whim. It reminds me of a politician. If they would just communicate the weather more down to earth and admit that there is some variability to it rather than predicting doom and gloom, people would be a lot more willing to accept it. When they say its gonna rain, we get a whopping 1/4 of an inch. Then people rush to the store and gas station and panic buy things like toilet paper.
 
That's especially true in the summer. M/T, it's, the weekends' going to be great, clear sky's, great temps...blah, blah, blah. W/TH, well, there will be a few cloud, but still great. Fri, oh, maybe a shower here and there. By Fri, wife has bought everything so you can take off right after. Then you're hooked for groceries. Chamber of Commerce is happy...no one cares if youy get rained-out. Happens every week in the summer.
 
Yah, it is pretty apparent that predicting the weather is not an exact science and must be hard as heck, as those who have put the time in to try to understand it, still struggle mightily. I just wish, particularly with rain, they would stop throwing out amounts. If they would just say if it will likely rain or not. There is a lot of things happening in the atmosphere and no one expects them to know exactly what is coming days in advance, so stop predicting .3" of rain, maybe throw out a range, like they do with snow. It almost seems like there have been environmental changes these last 2 summers, that has really made predicting rains difficult.

We had good melting yesterday and should have more today! It must be much easier to figure out the temps that are coming, as those seem to be pretty close on forecasting.
 
We got the rain overnight, would sure like to get some rain once the frost is out. Seems that most of the snow is gone except the big piles and drifts, some has turned to ice, but it is melting too. Stayed above freezing all night, that helps.
 
After 10" of snow and brutal winds last week, I took Sage for a drive to see what we could see and to let her cabin fevered butt get out and run. Not surprisingly, the birds did incredibly well. I literally counted over 200, hens and roosters alike. I probably should've hunted more as I think there are too many roosters, but all that to say, they came through another one.

I'm sure some die in every bad storm, but I believe that's all part of Darwinism.
 
Golden Hour said:
After 10" of snow and brutal winds last week, I took Sage for a drive to see what we could see and to let her cabin fevered butt get out and run. Not surprisingly, the birds did incredibly well. I literally counted over 200, hens and roosters alike. I probably should've hunted more as I think there are too many roosters, but all that to say, they came through another one.

I'm sure some die in every bad storm, but I believe that's all part of Darwinism.
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Thanks for your update. I can assure everyone that the birds are doing quiet well in north central ND. We have not had the amount of snow that everyone else has gotten. The snow shrunk considerable exposing fields for "easy feeding". This latest storm only brought 3-5" of snow. A walk at our cabin had my two dogs bumping up bird after bird. I rooster percentage is definitely high. I saw a ton more birds on the drive home yesterday.

The partridge are plentiful and definitely starting to pair up, the local geese are pairing up and I have seen more grouse than usual. I have yet to see any "dead birds" in the field on our 5-6 mile hikes we take but do see road kill birds.
 
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