Disappointing hunt today

[Weimdogman]

So today I hunted some private property that I haven't been on this season. The past couple of seasons this property has always held many birds. We started out hunting a draw going down to the creek bottom. A rooster wild flushed from the phragmites i didn't see it quick enough and the novice hunter with me didn't shoot. Well that was the only rooster we saw. I knew going down that draw when I didn't see pheasant tracks we were in for a long day.

The creek bottom has grasses and willows but a 1/2 mile produced 1 hen. There were almost no pheasant tracks there either. A small 3 acre wedge of crp in a corner with picked cornfield on 1 side and pasture on the others produced another single hen. No tracks there either.

The only thing different from past years was ice in many places I haven't seen in the past. Our crazy winter had melting snow and rain on frozen ground so ice is everywhere. I know the landowner has friends from out of state that hunted this ground earlier in the season and made a return trip so there must have been birds.

 

[A5 Sweet 16]

So today I hunted some private property that I haven't been on this season. The past couple of seasons this property has always held many birds. We started out hunting a draw going down to the creek bottom. A rooster wild flushed from the phragmites i didn't see it quick enough and the novice hunter with me didn't shoot. Well that was the only rooster we saw. I knew going down that draw when I didn't see pheasant tracks we were in for a long day.

The creek bottom has grasses and willows but a 1/2 mile produced 1 hen. There were almost no pheasant tracks there either. A small 3 acre wedge of crp in a corner with picked cornfield on 1 side and pasture on the others produced another single hen. No tracks there either.

The only thing different from past years was ice in many places I haven't seen in the past. Our crazy winter had melting snow and rain on frozen ground so ice is everywhere. I know the landowner has friends from out of state that hunted this ground earlier in the season and made a return trip so there must have been birds.

Yep, assuming there was fresh enough snow for fresh-ish tracks, if there weren't many, then they're not using it much. I usually chalk that up to changes on the surrounding ground. The most common change that I believe causes very little habitat use is a change from corn nearby last year to beans this year. So often they use other haunts closer to corn, especially in winter.