Look at the historical pheasant data that GFP has available on its website...you will see certain years where pheasant #'s are markedly different from one year to the next. we know that they can rebound drastically in just a year, given the right weather conditions (2003), but it also shows that they can drop severely in just a year as well. They dropped 75% from 1935 to 1936, for example. I would hope that nature worked so efficiently, and that hens knew what the state of the insect hatch was going to be weeks out in order to give her a cue as to whether she should abandon a clutch of eggs...but that would surprise me. But I am not a biologist. Maybe this does happen. over the past 10 years I have seen dove sized pheasants on opening weekend more than once, suggesting that nesting was happening in late august, which tells us that hens probably attempted to nest 3 times or more...my memory tells me that these were very wet years. In the area I hunt, it seems like you can set your watch to monsoon-like rains during the first half of june...happened about 4-6 times in the past 8-10 years. Most of those years the local farmer who takes care of my land couldn't get food plots planted until very late June or early July...too wet. so yes, I can see where nests got washed out or had to be abandoned, and the process started over. Maybe a predator destroyed a clutch and she had to start over. I tend to think a hen will react to events that already happened, but that it is unlikely she will make decisions based on what will be weeks out. But that is just me. I have hunted the same piece of ground for over 25 years...ground that hasn't been drastically different as far as the habitat is concerned. I watch the weather like a hawk, I talk to farmers year round, I get out there several times a year during the off-season. I would be VERY confident stating that in my opinion, based on empirical data, periods of prolonged hot and dry weather negatively affect pheasant chicks, and the resulting huntable population of birds. Having said that, I don't have NEARLY the experience that UGUIDE does as it pertains to pheasant habitat. but I am enough of a "pheasant nerd" that i spend a good bit of time on the old farmers almanac and look at historical weather info for certain zip codes during the june/july periods for lots of different years and I would tell you that in the really good and really bad years there are certain conditions that tend to occur....kind of a "blinding flash of the obvious" in my opinion. Now I know for sure that in 2012 I was sitting in an insurance continuing ed session and i got a phone call from a farmer around july 23rd, and he wanted to know if i would allow him to take hay from my CRP, as the USDA announced that day that our county was eligible for emergency haying and grazing. That would tell us that it was a pretty severe drought, and had been during the nesting period that summer. As I recall, hunting was pretty weak that fall, not many young birds. Anyone else recall how 2012 was, assuming they were impacted by the drought? I don't keep journals, but I should. I do recall bird #'s being weak for about 2 years thereafter as well, despite the gfp estimates to the contrary for our area. They were better in '15 & '16. Now, keep in mind, habitat was declining during that whole period, so I am keeping that in mind as i say these things...but I tend to hunt areas where the habitat was fairly consistent from one year to the next.