How's the spring shaping up?

C

calamari

Member
Looking at the various webcams around Montana it looks like spring is definitely here but there doesn't seem to be much rain. How's the nesting going and when is the critical time for spring moisture and no more freezing?
 
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Here in NE Montana it has been cool at times with moisture and some crisp mornings, however, the next week is looking awesome for the birds! Hens should be on their nest this month and into june. Cross your fingers for a great hatch! With the cover existing from a very wet 2011 they are looking good. I know of quite a bit of CRP coming out of the program this fall and next though, but hopefully with the numerous coules around, they will be alright I believe.
 
calamari said:
From your lips to the weatherman's ears. I just hope it doesn't get too dry.
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I agree, not much we can do about the weather but I will take a wet MT spring over a drought everytime. Seems to be plenty of birds around, only time will tell.:cheers:
 
It is the tradional Memorial day weekend last shot of cold wet spring....low 40's today with a steady drizzle here in Glasgow. I have talked to a few differnt people none have seen chicks yet, but I have reports of hens on nest, so hopefully the chicks will hatch after this wet and chilly weekend and do well. Seems like their are still quite a few roosters out there dueling for hens. Guess we will know more come the 4th of July.
 
Montana Husker said:
It is the tradional Memorial day weekend last shot of cold wet spring....low 40's today with a steady drizzle here in Glasgow. I have talked to a few differnt people none have seen chicks yet, but I have reports of hens on nest, so hopefully the chicks will hatch after this wet and chilly weekend and do well. Seems like their are still quite a few roosters out there dueling for hens. Guess we will know more come the 4th of July.
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I to am hoping the hens are mostly still sitting on nests. However, I don't think we will know the outcome until opening day, as nesting goes on long into the summer. Just my two cents worth.
 
Just like the people here in NE Montana.....the birds here are tougher then most...LOL Your right, the true guage will come in October, but I have high hopes for this fall.
 
2-3" of snow on the ground and still snowing in Great Falls! The garden was looking so good, it didn't freeze hard but only time will tell...
 
I'm looking at all the snow on the radar. Not good:( We better hope the nests are lost instead of the chicks. Hens have time to nest again but not if they have already hatched.
 
If you go to the web cams there is a fair amount of snow. Like mnmthunting says, this growing season will go fast if they get hammered early. Because of the late hatch last year there were a lot of poorly feathered rooters early in the season last year that would have had a hard time if there wasn't a relatively mild winter like was had.

Fort Benton
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"I'm thinking of my blue and ruffed grouse haunts." jsdriggs
There's a funny thing about Blue Grouse behavior. At least in California and I'd bet throughout their range, that behavior
was one of the trick questions on Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game biologist tests. "What is the name of the only game animal that migrates from its summer range to a higher elevation in the winter?" Blue Grouse apparently will go higher in the winter and spend the whole winter sitting on limbs in conifer trees eating nothing but needles. We've shot them late in the season with their crops stuffed with White Pine needles with needles poking through their crop's skin. Raptors decimate them as a result but they seem to be able to take the weather OK.
 
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calamari said:
"I'm thinking of my blue and ruffed grouse haunts." jsdriggs
There's a funny thing about Blue Grouse behavior. At least in California and I'd bet throughout their range, that behavior
was one of the trick questions on Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game biologist tests. "What is the name of the only game animal that migrates from its summer range to a higher elevation in the winter?" Blue Grouse apparently will go higher in the winter and spend the whole winter sitting on limbs in conifer trees eating nothing but needles. We've shot them late in the season with their crops stuffed with White Pine needles with needles poking through their crop's skin. Raptors decimate them as a result but they seem to be able to take the weather OK.
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Blue grouse (or dusky's if you prefer) do the same in Montana (go high in the winter). I have been hiking in the very high country in the summer and have seen the base of trees covered in grouse scat that I presume is from the previous winter (it is a long winter in MT). I am curious what raptors "decimate them". My understand is that one reason to go up high and sit in a tree is there are not many predators up there in the winter.

I also think blues are very adapted to these late spring snows. We seem to have much higher number after a wet spring than a when we have a drought. Just my observation.
 
I'm not a biologist but have friends who were unit biologists for DFG. They felt that Coopers Hawks, Sharp Shinned Hawks and especially Goshawks, were the raptors that preyed on Blue Grouse the most. We'd often see them in the same areas where we'd find grouse but rarely in areas we knew didn't have a grouse population. Some of the Blue Grouse were in very high White Pine and Pinion Pine pockets over 10,000 feet in elevation at the treeline-alpine interface.
 
I have driven across a fair chuck of NE MT in the last two days. Lots of roosters with hens, I am guessing they are either still laying or lost a first attempt, all good news to me. However, I tend to look at the glass as half full, lots of time for them to pull of a successful nest, weather it is the first attempt of the 5th (they will renest many times if they do not hatch a clutch).

Only time will tell, the good news is that this prec. will grow some cover. The only downer is that I am seeing lots of CRP get plowed back up and more still that has been sprayed with Round up and will be tilled soon. :mad: I will try to finish on a high note, I did hear that MT got about 270,000 acres of new or reenrolled in the latest sign up (I should have listened closer).
 
I have seen the same thing, roosters with hens. It was a chilly wet Memorial Day weekend up here. But I still have high hopes for this fall. I was in Medicine Lake for Memorial Day observance and had a chance to talk to a few friends there and they all said things are looking good as far as number of birds they are seeing. Hopefully the white combine will stay away this summer for both farmers and birds! Can not wait to hollar my three favorite words...." Rooster, Rooster, Rooster!"
 
I visited with a rancher friend from North Of Culbertson this past weekend. He said this past Winter was nicest he seen in 40 years. Pheasants normally flock into his groves and feeding areas, not so much this past Winter. Good cover and little to no snow in the grasslands.
Roosters crowing, no chicks yet.
 
Last Sunday we had cold rain all day here in Great Falls, I glance at my Pheasants Forever calendar on the wall and it said Monday was the peak hatch date for pheasants. Not a good combination. Only time will. On a positive note there is going to be lots of cover this fall!
 
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