NW Post-Blizzard Report

BritChaser

BritChaser

Well-known member
My NW huntin' buddy called this morning to say he thought a lot birds will die due to the big drifts of heavy snow created by the blizzard.
 
Missouri had several bad winters resulting in loss of birds. A few inches of snow warmed up briefly to produce a thick crust. This thick crust sat on the land for weeks. Once we found a covey frozen to the ground.

The blizzard in Kansas was this week. The forecast predicts highs in the 40s and 50s. The high wind should have exposed some ground.

It may be a minimal affect. Hopefully others will chime in.
 
Crossing shot said:
A few inches of snow warmed up briefly to produce a thick crust. This thick crust sat on the land for weeks.
Click to expand...

I remember this happened back in '05 or '06. Had a decent snow event that warmed just enough to form a crust, then another snowstorm followed a day or two later which also had a crust form on it. It was almost hard enough to hold my 250 pounds. Birds had to settle for a few windbreaks in the area or trees on the side of the road for cover. I remember one little tree along the road that had several quail, several pheasants, and countless other birds hanging out underneath it. We did really well because they were concentrated in the windbreaks, but I would have to believe this killed a lot of birds. Hopefully this doesn't happen again. This was NW of Scott City.
 


This I guess was one heck of a blizzard back in 05 in Norton county , I walked on top of the tassels of corn when we were pheasant hunting .

We hunted I think close to a month after the blizzard , some of the best pheasant hunting I have ever had . We shot most birds out of wheat fields or milo fields .

What was apparent though is that the birds we hunted were within a mile or two of good winter cover ( shelter belts) most birds still had good fat reserves on them when we skinned them .

It sure is possible that a few birds died that got caught out in sub-par caver .
 
The high winds blew up drifts, but they also uncovered bare ground. It has warmed right up after the snow, with no more snow in the forecast, actually highs in the upper 40's to low 50's. I really doubt the pheasants will be affected much. The ones we shot the last weekend were as fat as any I have seen this time of year, so they went into the storm in good shape. I would be real surprised if pheasant had any trouble from this storm.
 
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