Residents view of winter so far

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0fer2

New member
Hi all

I am wondering, from a ND residents experience view, how your winter has been so far on wildlife populations so far. We know of the 3-4 storms that hit your state hard. So in your area, your travels, what you've seen, what you've been told by reliable sources, are your pheasants, huns, and deer taking a big hit this winter.

Thanks for responding.

Dan
 
Hi Dan, well in short, so far this winter in one word........SUCKS!!! It's been a tough one. My season was pretty much over the last weekend of Nov. Did get out a couple times in Dec, but was really hard to get any place due to the snow and drifting. My son was able to get a grouse and rooster when he was home on Christmas Leave, but they were taken in the farmers silage yard.

As to the question at hand, the birds have taken a hit, no doubt about it. All the winter cover is pretty much covered up, the cattail sloughs are all filled, as are the tree lines. CRP/prairie grasslands are also covered. The big factor was the blowing and drifting snow, plus the sub zero temps we had. Nothing was able to melt or settle down. The birds will always find some food source in farmers grain piles, silage yards etc. But in the open wild, pretty tough for any food source. On nice sunny days I have seen a few on the roads and lots of them scratching around in some of the cut grain fields. I've also seen a lot grouped under bullberry bushes. So they are out there and many will survive, but not as many as we'd like. Huns will be hit hard also, this year I saw a lot of them, they were making a comeback, but this will knock them back a peg or two. Grouse is another story, as a native bird, they should do ok, not great, but ok.

We're in a warming trend now, that is supposed to last thru the end of the month. That sure will help. The big factor IMHO will be the spring nesting season. If we get a good spring and decent summer, we should see the birds rebound a bit,fingers crossed!

Overall, it's not good, but it's not as bleak as it could be. The winter of 96/97 was far worse and they survived that one.

That's my take, I'm a bit more optimistic then some, hope I'm right.

Best,

Greg
 
Take a look at the intellicast snow cover map or look at the Bismarck Tribune website or look at the Pipe Line Protester camp photos ... Look at Hettmoe's live pheasant photos ... not much ground visible ... all snow.

Bismarck to Minot area has received a season's worth of snow in the month of December.

Much of ND is under a lot of snow. Most of those answering above live in SW ND which usually does not get this much snow for so long ... SW ND is blessed with more active ranch yards which helps keep a base pheasant population.

Generally speaking ... everything west of a Hwy 281 is "tundra".

Here are a couple of ND G&F updates on winter and winter feeding.

https://gf.nd.gov/news/1401

https://gf.nd.gov/news/1412
 
Agreed with the above, on one drive down I-94 from fargo to Bismarck after the huge Christmas (most recent big storm) storm I saw at least 5 herds of deer, one approaching what seemed to be 200+. I've seen deer yard/herd up but this was bigger than i'd ever seen in person. Pheasants in some areas had a hard time and've died grouped up trying to survive (Fargo area where they had more rain/freezing rain) but just yesterday saw about 30 roosters/hens hanging out in a open field along the interstate and many more in farmyards. Yes, open fields...some areas including still during the season had snow blown off it enough to give up food. These areas are where I've seen the majority of wildlife.

At one point the statistic for snow was, "through December it's the most amount of snow on record for that time period". At least in Bismarck that was the case. The east side of the state (Jamestown and east) has gotten much less snow and may have better attrition rates. Still too early to tell though IMO for next year. As we know it'll really come down to how much we flood this year if at all (the corps has stated they're ready and all downstream is ready) and then how nesting goes. That's my report I guess, but heading out again later this week and will try to report what I see again.
 
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