According to the South Dakota GFP the annual brood survey starts July 25 and ends August 15. What is your prediction for the state wide % up down or the same
Throw the percentages out. While a 50% increase seems fantastic think about it like this. If your area had 1.7 birds per mile last year a 50% increase is only about .8 birds. From all that I'm reading and hearing the numbers statewide will certainly be up from last year. But I think it may vary greatly from one area to another due to some extreme weather differences. The southeast part of the state had a lot of rain and flooding which could not have helped. And the central part from Huron up to Aberdeen is still in a severe drought area. Overall, look for increased pheasant numbers and better hunting than last year.
no, overall #'s will still be sucky vs the 10 year average...but even in bad years I have lots of fun, so if I have 25% or 50% MORE fun than last year, that is OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Southeast up 30%
South central up 45%
North central up 40%
Northeast up 25%
Statewide up 38.62%
The 5 numbers above will be as useful as the brood survey report in predicting what this season will be like. But.....those are my guesses.
100% increase...
This would only put us back to 2016 numbers, but I would take it.
good thing the worst weather (SE) is an area that isn't that great to begin with, so the real impact of that rain won't be that great...
The SE can be better than you give it credit for. George can concur......
statewide, up 40%. some areas probably up around 70%, some up only 10%. still pretty low in real #'s...we went from about 3 birds per mile in 2016 to about 1.7 last year. Again, that is statewide. I bet the average is around 2.5 birds per mile, which could be a 50% increase.
The thing that worries me is look how far off it is from the 10 year average. Some of those peak years a dropping off now on that average and it's still below. Not good, but improving. Just shows it takes a lot of good years to make up for decreasing numbers.