Brood Sited....Weather looks good

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

Active member
Our Faulkton location sited a new brood last week and also some new fawns.

15 forecast looks stellar for the hatch with highs in the 80's and overnight lows in the 60's. Not much rain in the 15 day forecast.

If there is as many pheasants as mosquitos you'd better stock up on ammunition.:cheers:
 
Hopefully you are going to witness the perfect storm this year!!! Warming up just at the right time!!:thumbsup:
 
UGUIDE said:
Our Faulkton location sited a new brood last week and also some new fawns.

15 forecast looks stellar for the hatch with highs in the 80's and overnight lows in the 60's. Not much rain in the 15 day forecast.

If there is as many pheasants as mosquitos you'd better stock up on ammunition.:cheers:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the updates Chris. I enjoy reading your reports (on your webpage and here) throughout the year. Maybe one day I'll visit one of your lodges.
 
Do you know what today is? "Peak Hatch Day" according to Pheasants Forever.

Do you know how many pheasants are hatching today in South Dakota as we speak? A lot!

Weather at our farm for the 10 day outlook is highs in the 90's and overnight low's in the 60's or 70's. Pretty much like an incubator if you ask me.

:cheers::10sign:

I never thought too much about this but the spring moisture has a lot to do with what the fall cover is like and also the over winter cover. Much of it grows in spring and early summer. I have seen in drought years where the fall/winter cover is downright sparse.
 
UGUIDE said:
Do you know what today is? "Peak Hatch Day" according to Pheasants Forever.

Do you know how many pheasants are hatching today in South Dakota as we speak? A lot!

Weather at our farm for the 10 day outlook is highs in the 90's and overnight low's in the 60's or 70's. Pretty much like an incubator if you ask me.

:cheers::10sign:

I never thought too much about this but the spring moisture has a lot to do with what the fall cover is like and also the over winter cover. Much of it grows in spring and early summer. I have seen in drought years where the fall/winter cover is downright sparse.
Click to expand...

Can't you here the shells cracking and the little peep-peep-peep's?
 
Saw a brood of 8 up to the in laws by Aberdeen this weekend. They looked to be a week or two old. Good signs and good cover all the way from Sioux Falls up to their place.
 
UGUIDE said:
I've got a more in-depth 2016 Brood Outlook on the UGUIDE site here too if you are interested.

http://www.uguidesdpheasants.com/ne...pring-pheasant-brood-outlook-report-forecast/
Click to expand...

Chris,
I agree with you 100% that habitat is the key. If a U guide property has terrific cover the amount of birds you produce can be significantly greater than what the road side counts are.
Where I disagree with you is when you say they are extremely inaccurate. The avg hunter does not have the luxury sometimes of hunting manicured pheasant parcels. These guys hunt public land and road side ditches. The roadside counts are a help to these individuals because it gives them a fair idea of what the falls county and state wide population will look like. If birds are down 40% in their area they may choose not to come. If a u guide property is in this area, yes your hunters can have bird numbers much higher. However, that doesn't help the hunter who does not have access to Your land!
I think the roadside counts give a "fair" outlook. It's not totally accurate for the reasons you stated but it does tell us whether the population is up or down from previous years. I look forward to them when they come out and plan my hunts based on them as do thousands of other hunters.
 
I am sure what you say is true but last year we were supposed to be up but we were not. But it is the best we have.
 
haymaker said:
I am sure what you say is true but last year we were supposed to be up but we were not. But it is the best we have.
Click to expand...

We hunt west river and the roadside forecast for us in in 2014, and 2015 was very accurate. No survey is perfect but as a non resident I greatly appreciate the effort and money SD along with other states spends on this information.
 
Looking good but need a rain

This weekend saw 4 little group of fliers along a half mile section line. Birds numbers show improvement over last year. Concern is rain, crops could use an inch soon. NE SD corn is knee to waist high, soybeans 3-8 inches but beans need a rain. Another observation is things are weedier than normal especially on Field borders. Pray for a nice steady 1 inch of rain.. Viking
 
Last edited:
Hockeybob said:
Chris,
I agree with you 100% that habitat is the key. If a U guide property has terrific cover the amount of birds you produce can be significantly greater than what the road side counts are.
Where I disagree with you is when you say they are extremely inaccurate. The avg hunter does not have the luxury sometimes of hunting manicured pheasant parcels. These guys hunt public land and road side ditches. The roadside counts are a help to these individuals because it gives them a fair idea of what the falls county and state wide population will look like. If birds are down 40% in their area they may choose not to come. If a u guide property is in this area, yes your hunters can have bird numbers much higher. However, that doesn't help the hunter who does not have access to Your land!
I think the roadside counts give a "fair" outlook. It's not totally accurate for the reasons you stated but it does tell us whether the population is up or down from previous years. I look forward to them when they come out and plan my hunts based on them as do thousands of other hunters.
Click to expand...


HB, good discussion. My theory is based on the situation where you could have some sweet CRP along a mile of road they have been doing counts on for decades and next year it is gone to crop but maybe someone else put in a boat load of new CRP but it lays 2+ miles of the survey routes. The survey would reflect down numbers instead of what the "overall" area truly reflects.

I personally think it is inaccurate and misleading because it does not adjust for change of landscape and cover types along survey routes.
 
sdviking said:
This weekend saw 4 little group of fliers along a half mile section line. Birds numbers show improvement over last year. Concern is rain, crops could use an inch soon. NE SD corn is knee to waist high, soybeans 3-8 inches but beans need a rain. Another observation is things are weedier than normal especially on Field borders. Pray for a nice steady 1 inch of rain.. Viking
Click to expand...

Thanks for the report. I too was out at farm doing habitat maint and food plot replants (fill in low wets spots). Saw more broods and most fliers and one large brood of some really big fliers.

I will tell you this: My cover has never been better but I have no idea what we have for birds and a hatch indicator. Never have I seen more fawns though.

Almost truly takes till Dec. to see what the bird production is/was.
 
Not that I'm an expert by any means, but I'm with Chris (UGuide) on this one. Two reasons why. First, there is a peace of land I hunt in northern Missouri that I've hunted the last 10 years that is 120 acres of CRP and in the last 2 years there has been major changes to surrounding farms resulting in now very little CRP in that square mile. So if I did counts on that stretch over the last 10 years my results would lead me to believe there has been a decline in birds the last 2 years based on what I'm seeing/hearing. Now, if I travel 1 hour where CRP hasn't changed, 5K of public land, I'm happy to see numbers are very healthy and have increased. Secondly, 3 or 4 years back the SDGFP report was very poor and on the farm I hunt in SD the group of 3 darn near got our 5 day limit. So my thoughts are staying on the exact routes don't take into account the annual changes made by land owners that can positively or negatively impact their count. Making it do a degree flawed. Finally, since I've been traveling up to SD over the last 9 years hunting the same farm I find that every year is pretty darn similar. It does vary for sure, but not close to 40% up or down. The key is neither does the landscape, which is where I've come to my conclusion of it being flawed.

I wish I had an update for you all on "broods sited" as the title clearly says, but maybe Chris (UGuide) you can shed light on how things are looking for those who hunt near or at Boar's Nest as I'm not too far from that lodge. If I hear from the land owner I'll post that to this page. Have a great day!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top