Cold rain, freezing rain and sleet, tough on the birds

onpoint

onpoint

Active member
This is not good news for the remaining birds who have made it this far through the winter.

Report what it's doing where you are through this storm in SoDak.

Watch it from around the state on the DOT traffic camera's

http://safetravelusa.com/sd/cameras/
 
This is why I preach the "must have woody cover" In your upland bird habitat.
Grasslands alone have little cover for birds during storms.
Pheasants and Sharptails will be crowded under those dreaded:( Russian Olives].
Where available.
 
I hope it is mostly rain, not freezing rain and blowing snow. We'll have to see the reports today and tomorrow. Either way, the winter has been very mild and there will be lots of carry over birds heading into nesting season. We avoided the big storms so far and with little to no snow cover most of the season. Heavy snow cover for an extended period of time is the real pheasant killer along with the real nasty blizzards. We are out of the woods as far as snow cover for an extended period and only a horrific blizzard is left until breeding season. Hoping for a real good nesting season!
 
If we do not get conditions where their nostrils freeze up, we should be good. So far the temps are warm enough in southeast where that should not be happening. The hiway 14 corridor where they are predicting the worst has not been hit yet as this is all coming up from the south. 14 covers a lot of good pheasant ground.
 
It's 3:11 PM here in Watertown, SD and raining pretty hard. Temp is 31 so it's just starting to freeze a little. starting ot form ice on my deck and the driveway. I imagine the ground will be warm enough to melt it for awhile but as the sun sets it will probably get very dicey and then turn to snow.
 
Raining hard at 3:30PM. Sioux Falls. If it were to be snow we would have foot and 1/2. Radar says pretty much all rain.
 
All rain so far in Platte say my resources and raining hard. Started about 1100 CST
 
This is turning out to be the mother of all storm systems across most of the central part of the country heading east.

Twin Cities rush hour is a zoo. Rain turned to ice and now snow. Commutes taking 3 times longer than normal in many areas. STAY HOME !!!

Twisters in Nebraska and Missouri in February :eek:
 
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100 miles from the Canadian boarder we are getting pounded, complete white out. Wind is howling
 
It is about over here in north central South Dakota. It was not that big of a deal here. It will probably do more good than harm in that we can use some moisture. From Huron to Watertown looks like they got a lot of precipitation. I am not sure how much was rain and how much was snow.
 
Not sure what the official amount was for Watertown but I'm guessing 6-8 inches of wet heavy snow with a lot of wind. It was really kind of crazy as it was raining hard at about 3:00 PM yesterday, turned to snow at about 4:00 PM and snowed and blew hard into the night. Then I wake up at 1:00 AM and it's raining hard again with a strong NE wind. All the windows on the NE side of my house were solid ice, couldn't even see out. Had to be a tough day for the pheasants with freezing rain, then snow and then freezing rain again. But then there aren't any pheasant around Watertown anyway to get hurt. :D
 
I-29 was closed from Watertown to the North Dakota boarder and I-90 was closed from Chamberlain to Murdo. I believe I-29 has re-opened.
 
We've seen quite a few birds. We have a grove and nice area in our pasture where we've seen quite a few birds the last couple of days with all the freezing rain and snow. I'm kind of bummed to say that most of the birds were roosters. I hope the hens were just hunkered down. I hope we haven't lost too many hens for the first laying season.
 
RF, Those roosters are getting rambunctious this time of year. Already bothering the hens, hens have no interest and will tend to keep out of the roosters areas. Roosters will of course, occupy choice shelter and feeding areas.
So what you need to do, this Fall. Take out some of the roosters, get about a 1-8 ratio. Have fun!:cheers:
 
The birds can fair a storm as describe with little to no problem. Even if their tails freeze to the ground, they'll find a way to break free.

If the rain hit hard, followed by swift sub-zero temps, then there's trouble.

I think they're all good with this one;)
 
What's the latest guys? How did the birds come thru the storm? Are you seeing a good carry over of birds, especially hens? It appeared as though we seen many more roosters last year than hens.
 
I do not think it hurt them much---maybe up north where there were not many left to start with and the storm was colder.

I took Flirt, my youngest pup at 1 year, out to a field owned by a friend who just passed away from a heart attack(he smoked). He had a quarter, mostly CRP, that is about 3 miles north of the Sioux Falls airport. Put up 5 roosters and 2 hens so he did not shoot enough roosters last season.

The sad part is they already took the ground out of CRP and will auction it off at the end of the month. It has three building site eligibilities. It is 1.5 miles from exit 89 on I-29. This 160 acres will go for something between $800,000 to $1,000,000. The CRP will be torn up and put in corn and 3 houses will go up.:(

Keith spent a lot of $ and work there and will not be around to enjoy it. He had adopted his two grandkids and had full custody, so I guess the good thing is they can use the $. I was the last guy to be in there with a dog chasing those birds. RIP KEITH SANDBERG
 
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