Brown County

BirdDoggin

New member
I hunted Brown County on Saturday and thought I would share. I have been out of the game for many years but now have a 1 year old lab that pulled me from retirement. I walked 2 pieces of public land and two pieces of private land, one of which was a beautiful grass field alongside standing corn and a cut bean field. Never saw a bird and I don't think the dog ever picked up a scent of any kind. I chatted with both farmers about bird numbers and what they have been seeing, and the feedback was not great. The first said he has seen only one hen the entire year, and the other was less specific but also said he just wasn't seeing anything. There were a number of public areas and a couple of WIA's and there were quite a few groups out Saturday AM. I moved around quite a bit and covered a lot of miles in one day and never did see a bird. I'm sure there are birds out there somewhere, but I won't be heading back to the that part of Brown county anytime soon. Corn was coming out but still a lot standing, as others have reported.
 
My group of 6 hunted first 4 days of opener and did very poorly. This is my 49th year hunting pheasants in SD with over 300 trips and this was by far the worst I have ever seen. Need habitat to bring it back and that will all be determined by CRP program.
 
Back
Top