I hunted ND last weekend. The pheasant population was great, though the cover looks much worse than it did last year. They need a mild winter. I also saw lots of sharpies, but couldn't get within a hundred yards of them. The pheasants were the opposite. Almost had to kick them to make them fly. I was hunting mostly on private land, but the walk in access is excellent up there. The hunters on the PLOTS land seemed to be having some tough luck this year. This might be because of the bad cover and CRP losses. Birds were heavily concentrated in the thick cover.