Impressions of the 2013-14 season

CharBroiled

CharBroiled

Active member
Personally, I thought it was a good season even though the numbers were bad. Of course, the numbers in my neck of the woods were better than they have been the past two years. We did see pockets of birds and even managed to bag a few here and there.

I think with the right weather conditions numbers could rebound even more for next year here in south central Kansas.

What do you guys think?
 
I too believe the numbers were better than last year. My son remembers clearly how his first full season (12-13) of gun-toting went....he carried it and carried it and probably forgot why he was carrying it at times. This season was different for him. He figured out right away that all he had to do was stay ready and eventually, the ole' man and the dogs would put him on another opportunity to shoulder his gun and at least attempt to connect;) He got back in the truck many times this season and said, "It's way better than last season."

Save for the youth opener, I don't recall coming home empty-handed in 13-14. We were skunked 4 or 5 times in 12-13. Either bird #'s were a little better this time around or we benefitted from the reduced hunter pressure on public lands. Wait, no, I bet it's because my dogs are better than everyone else's:rolleyes::D
 
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This snow storm isn't going to help the quail. Heavy snow cover with over a week of below freezing temps with some in the sub-zero range and we will probably lose some birds. The moisture will help habitat and eventually the potential success over past drought years, but you have to have brood birds to produce young.
 
I agree that this season was better than last year, but not by much. Found two areas with birds and we spent numerous trips in those two areas. One thing I haven't really seen the past two seasons are large flushes of birds at the same time. Used to be you could always count on some large 10+ flushes at least a few times a year and really haven't seen much of that the past two years. Not sure about you guys, but seems like the birds have sat a little tighter the past two years. Not sure if it's because there's less eyes/ears to alert them to danger? Kept a journal for a lot of years, used to shoot 30-50 roosters pretty regular. Didn't keep one last year, but my guess is right around 10 harvested. I believe this year was somewhere in the 15 range. The only time I was skunked this year was the last day of the season and I had a chance to put two in the bag.
 
I don't think it was better, but truthfully, I didn't do much bird hunting last season. I do know that all the locals around my haunts say it is much worse this year.
I never got skunked this season, but things just no longer make sense.
I actually believe that I "lucked" into several birds, but areas that SHOULD hold birds are totally devoid.
There is no doubt that a cooperating "mother nature" will help. If we have 3 or 4 perfect nesting seasons, it may even mask what happened the last two,
BUT,
I'm convinced that something else is happening to the birds.
I don't know what it is...
Chemicals...
Some kind of flu or plague,
I just don't know. But I have areas that never lacked for food, water (lots), and cover. Yet, totally devoid of birds.
Of course the drought, extreme heat, and an early harvest will kill the hatch, but... Where are the old birds in these areas?
 
Prairie Drifter said:
This snow storm isn't going to help the quail. Heavy snow cover with over a week of below freezing temps with some in the sub-zero range and we will probably lose some birds. The moisture will help habitat and eventually the potential success over past drought years, but you have to have brood birds to produce young.
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Troy, we are getting dumped on. I got home late tonight and I would guess we have at least 12" and now the wind is starting to blow. The quail did not need this.
 
Really hate to see this heavy snow storm. The quail at one of my spots made a good come back this year. This may set those covies back. Wish there was something I could do to help them.
 
bird count

for me, in my area of n.w. kansas this season was worse than last year, i didn't hunt as much but did put in a doz. days with the mutts and mostly i struggled to shoot pheasants, fields that had cover, had some birds, the distance between fields that could hold birds was great, roosters were far more numerous than hens. no quail in my area to speak of

cheers
 
I only pheasant hunted once this year. None shot.

Was able to find quite a few quail though. I'm thankful for that due to young dogs needing the birds. Not many shot but the opportunities were usually there to take a few home.

I sure hope this snow doesn't set things back. One of my areas I didn't hunt until the latter part of January and I found that it had rebounded nicely from last year.
 
SetterNut said:
Troy, we are getting dumped on. I got home late tonight and I would guess we have at least 12" and now the wind is starting to blow. The quail did not need this.
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Yeah Steve, same here! I'm guessing 11-12 inches and now drifting. Drifting may be a God-send. It will uncover some ground where the birds can forage. However with the forecast of below freezing temps for the next week and this snow cover, the birds are going to take a beating. I didn't catch who said it above, but their comment about another factor affecting bird populations has some merit. However, we also are pretty bad about understanding just how significant the past 3 drought years have been in how they have affected our bird survival and productive capability. Most of the people on this site underestimate the impacts of this drought. I don't know how to purvey just how it affects every aspect of their lives. It makes them more susceptible to parasite, weather, predation, disease, isolation, everything. You start adding up those kind of layered factors and it's like an NFL team that had everything to win the superbowl at the start of the season, but due to injuries, ineligibility issues, arrests, etc, didn't even make the playoffs. The fact that impacts last year affect birds this year is hard for folks to understand. We had 36.86 inches of rainfall in 2013. That's almost 9 inches over normal. However, it's distribution, timing, and the influences of the past 2 years made its contribution to the productive potential of the remaining birds much less than had that occured within a "normal" rainfall multi-year term. Now, with populations so low, we cannot expect phenomenal increases in a 1 year span as the reproductive potential is not available. Yes, the birds have the genetic predisposition to increase their reproductive effort to fill the available niche, but are they in a physical condition to do so? Is the habitat available in reasonable proximity for them to take advantage of? Is there contiguous acres of quality, undisturbed habitat that will allow them to maximize their productive effort? Probably not.
 
Prairie Drifter said:
Yeah Steve, same here! I'm guessing 11-12 inches and now drifting. Drifting may be a God-send. It will uncover some ground where the birds can forage. However with the forecast of below freezing temps for the next week and this snow cover, the birds are going to take a beating. I didn't catch who said it above, but their comment about ..................Yes, the birds have the genetic predisposition to increase their reproductive effort to fill the available niche, but are they in a physical condition to do so? Is the habitat available in reasonable proximity for them to take advantage of? Is there contiguous acres of quality, undisturbed habitat that will allow them to maximize their productive effort? Probably not.
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My work was a bit slow yesterday as half the people went home early in our Topeka office so they werent funneling me any work so I went driving around with my wife around 4-5:30 or so. Did see 2 quail about 7-10 miles from our house out pecking around in a bare field across the road from a pasture. Seemed to be a male/female pair. Was a little concerning to not see any other birds. Hope they werent the only two.
 
Precipe is so important for Spring/Summer bird habitat.

If I could wish, for you folks, I would like it to stay dry until April showers.
One nice widespread thundershower adds more then 12 inches of wind blown, drifting snow.
But, what can we do.
 
I felt very good about the season I had....quail #'s were VERY good here at home in IL and I found a fair # of birds in Kansas each of the 3 times I was there this year....here at home I backed off quite a bit from hunting each covey....I have about 10 coveys that I hunt.....I made a conscious effort not to over hunt or over shoot them...I had some REALLY good hunts ....then mother nature really stuck it to them from early December on till now....too much below zero temps...too much snow...too much ice...and now Kansas is getting the same....unbelievable.....just feel soo helpless.....most of my IL ground has perfect cover but they still don't stand much of a chance. it makes me sick.:(
 
mustistuff said:
for me, in my area of n.w. kansas this season was worse than last year, i didn't hunt as much but did put in a doz. days with the mutts and mostly i struggled to shoot pheasants, fields that had cover, had some birds, the distance between fields that could hold birds was great, roosters were far more numerous than hens. no quail in my area to speak of

cheers
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I experienced similar results in the NW this year as well. There were areas with good to great cover and some held impressive numbers for such a down year but those fields were few and far between. I didn't see any quail in NW Kansas this year and not nearly as many Prairie Chickens as I've seen in the past. Most of the rangeland in the NW that I saw was really really chewed down. Some of it will most likely take years to come back as a healthy prairie again. I know the snow will hurt the quail but western Kansas needs more moisture!
 
Better than expected at a few of my places, where I like to hunt in NW was even worse than last year, if that's possible. Very happy for the poor conditions, dog made big strides this year.
 
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