I was in between Mitchell, Huron, De Smet, and Redfield for most of the week.
While I didn't particularly see a lot of pheasants, that doesn't really mean anything. There are a lot of places for them to hide right now. I did see a nice clutch of about 8-10 chicks with a hen one day so that was a good hatch.
The crops look good, there seems to be a lot of bugs for them to eat, and there's no drought. So all of those are good signs.
I did see some fields and ditches with standing water though, so that's not good.
They were mowing a lot of road edges and ditches this past week. Not a big fan of doing that so soon. Wish they would wait until August to do this. Some have been mowed all the way up to the right of way.
My opinion after spending a week in this area is that the conditions seem better than average at this point. I'd rate it as a 7 out of 10.
