And yet another report

F

findthatbird

New member
Like others, I read many of the discussions about the decline in bird numbers but decided to wait to chime in until I had first had experience. Well, It's pretty grim. Our group hunted private land in the Redfield area for two days. Historically, on the same property, we would flush (albeit most out of range) 100's of birds. This year, we quit after two days. Five guys, three dogs and we flushed less than 20 birds, all but a few out of range. More deer tracks were to be seen than pheasant. Most disturbing were the comments made by local farmers; the majority commented that they were seeing few birds while combining corn.

Will I return next year to SD? Very Likely yes but I will pair my trip with a preserve hunt. Let's all hope for a mild winter, dry spring and a return to inproved habitat conditions.
 
findthatbird said:
Like others, I read many of the discussions about the decline in bird numbers but decided to wait to chime in until I had first had experience. Well, It's pretty grim. Our group hunted private land in the Redfield area for two days. Historically, on the same property, we would flush (albeit most out of range) 100's of birds. This year, we quit after two days. Five guys, three dogs and we flushed less than 20 birds, all but a few out of range. More deer tracks were to be seen than pheasant. Most disturbing were the comments made by local farmers; the majority commented that they were seeing few birds while combining corn.

Will I return next year to SD? Very Likely yes but I will pair my trip with a preserve hunt. Let's all hope for a mild winter, dry spring and a return to inproved habitat conditions.
Click to expand...

When you were there did you see nesting cover? Had that changed since last year?
 
I watched 5 of the largest John Deere combines work a milo field last week in Lyman county.. I waited around to the end to see how many birds left the field. Half way thru the last strip. one rooster jumped up.

While the harvest may help, I wouldn't necessarily bank it being the savior to the 2013 season..
 
We drove from MN to the Eureka, Mobridge area last weekend. We only manged 11 birds in 3.5 days with 5 guys. Last year we had our daily limits in less then 3 hours each day. They seem to be struggling to get the crops out though. Still on beans. Only seen one corn field combined.
 
Probably wise to make a combination pheasant hunting/walleye fishing trip. Nothing wrong with a hot walleye bite and the eating is second to none!
 
makes you wonder

So I'm thinking next year I'm going to have to raise a couple hundred birds to help nature out a little bit. We still have Ok cover around our hunting ground. One walkin area of CRP and two big sloughs. I do know that as the old tree belts die out, that we are replanting with 6-10 foot bushes or dwarft spruce trees. The tall trees just seem to provide the hawks a launch point to dive bomb the pheasants...
 
Did you only hunt the Redfield area? Supposed to be heading to that area on Thursday, Nov 14.

I will be hunting the Frankfort and Redfield area. Hope its not as bleak as your hunt was.
 
haymaker said:
When you were there did you see nesting cover? Had that changed since last year?
Click to expand...

There appeard to be marginally nesting cover. It was very wet with more standing water than in previous years. None of the property we hunt was removed from CRP however.
 
There seems to be a lot of variability in bird numbers this year depending on the area. We hunted not far from Redfield for 5 days on private land. 2 guys, 3 dogs ended up with 30 birds. The farm we hunted clearly had better numbers than last year. Looks like we were fortunate enough to be hunting in one of the good pockets. Beans and wheat were out, all corn was still up.
Nesting cover looks good for next year.
 
Thanks for the update. I'll keep you guys posted after I get back on Sunday as to how we did. Hopefully well.
 
We just got back from Sd late Sunday night. We hunted 3 days and brought back 22 birds between the 3 of us. We hunted on private ground around the Platte area. The farmer had excellent cover. The first trip we only shot 9 birds. I think next year we are going to apply for a license to shoot ducks. We could mix the hunt up a little. The first trip our group went pdog hunting. That was pretty fun.
 
Just got back from SD. Me & my Brother had a great 3 days of hunting. Limited everyday in the Redfield & Frankfort area's. Definitely a lot less bird numbers but with the lower amount of pheasant's they seemed to be sitting a lot tighter which is nice for a pointing dog.

Not much pressure either. Noticed that in the fields as well as the Bars & Restaurants. Not that many hunters in SD this year.
 
there is still birds in SD i flushed 20 birds in 1 flock 1 or 2 times so if people only seen 20 birds in days of hunting they were just in the wrong spot or had to many other hunters on the pay to play lands b4 they got there??? i mean i seen 9 roosters in a ditch driving around seen about 100-150 birds in the fields with me while hunting not including ditch birds or birds off the public lands... seen 25-50 birds each day & the locals did not notice a huge decline in bird #s??? i hunted 3 areas of from central SD back east to the MN border seen solid bird #s at every tract of lands i hunted but i only hunted prime spots not so so iffy habitat... cover was great nesting cover was great & hen numbers were great with a mild winter/spring we will see loads of birds in SD again in the near future i hope???

its not all doom & gloom just got to hunt wear the habitat & birds are...
 
you lost me on that comment captaincoot??? what is that supposed to mean???

i was not by any pay to play released pen raised birds type places all the birds seen were wild???

what when they pay to play boys release a bunch of birds SD is better to hunt??? or are we saying the boys that payed to play didnt have birds released for them b4 they hunted???

that comment lost me???
 
It's more of a joke between Iowa and SD SMO not criticizing anyones way of hunting:) I'm referring to SD's dirty little secert:eek: The releasing of tame pheasant on public ground in SD (trailers full of them). You hit the right day on public ground after a release and it's a limit in A minute :thumbsup: I had guides and farmers from SD tell me 70-90% of pheasant shot in SD are pen raised:eek: There has to be some truth to it by how many people have told me this.
 
I was told that pen raised pheasants cost about 15 dollars a bird. At that rate how in the world could anyone including the State of South Dakota afford to release that many?????? Seems very cost prohibitive to me!:eek:
 
now that captaincoot is a 1st!!! i have never herd outside of the black hills & the hot springs area of SD that the SD G&F releases birds on public lands... i personally feel that is a crock of S*** its makes no sense that the state of SD would spend big $$$ loading the public lands with pheasants at least to me???

i have herd 100s of stories of private guides buying & releasing truck loads of pheasants from MN/WI/IA ETC. & selling them hunts/birds as 100% wild pheasants & pheasant hunts...

but it shows some lack of class to post this B/S of SD G&F loading the public lands with birds & thus EZ hunts in SD & on public lands to boot after people report success on public lands no need to insinuate that the birds harvested were released or that SD releases birds onto public lands to try & diminish the hunts???

i personally did not seek out or hunt near any pay to play fields or operations wear they release birds but if that was the case that would not be cool i have herd of guys doing that & i dont want to travel all the way to SD to hunt pen raised birds its that simple...

i will go through all my birds & look for blinder marks around the nostrils but i honestly 100% dont think any of the birds i encountered were released if the SD G&F dose do this please guys post some info or horror stories of you seeing this??? not just some guy or a friend of a friend said so... i would not trust much guides have to say they release birds then sell them as wild hunts to guys who dont know any better... i hunt wild birds in MN & didnt notice any difference in how wild the birds acted just more birds in SD to play with maybe in certain areas of SD this may happen but on private grounds the state doing so just sounds like B/S
 
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