Rock Bottom!!

[KBell]

Hello Everyone,

I have followed this site for several years but finally had to post. 43 years an Iowa birdhunter-have never seen anything like this past weekend. I could not stay quiet any longer.

My son and I hunted family ground and others on Saturday and Sunday. Put up one hen and one rooster on family ground-normally 45 birds bagged in previous seasons--even last year over the opening two days. Had 12 roosters and 33 hens on trail cam picks of our grove over the winter and up until March.

Hunted others property on Sunday and put up two hens in 2 miles of walking.

No corn within 1 and 1/2 miles of either place. Saw a total of 3 nests in all of that cover.

We are definitely at the rock bottom here in Iowa. If we have another winter like the past three, we are done. My gun and I will travel this year.

Visited with 11 hunters at a tavern on Saturday night. They hunted all day and in two counties. They had seven roosters. When I asked to take a look--all birds were 1 to 2 years old. There was not a young bird in the lot!

 

[pheasantaddict]

It's not good out in the majority of Iowa right now. What kind of cover do you have on the family farm? Buffer, draws ect...

 

[KBell]

You are so right PheasantAddict! I can not get rid of the sick feeling I have in my stomach. I have hunted birds most of my life. I never thought I would see the end.

Our family farm has a center creek with 100 foot wide buffers on each side. This is one half mile long. On the south side we have a honeysuckle and high bush cranberry thicket that is 200 feet long and 50 feet wide. On the north side we have 40 acres of switchgrass that has three rows of evergreens all along the north edge. On the east and west fencelines we have 1/4 mile long switchgrass strips that are 100 feet wide. My son and I planted(and have in past years) four 1 acre foodplots of sorghum, sunflower seeds, and millet. You could say that we farm part of it for pheasants.

The other properties we hunted have sloughs, ironweed thickets and patches of switchgrass in them. As I stated in the first post, we have done well in these areas in past seasons. We had an okay year last year even though the numbers were down.

We knew the numbers we had heading into spring based on the trailcam pictures we obtain from the eight rows of cedars and pines that form a 200 x200 foot "L" shaped grove around my parents original farmhouse.

We have a neighbor that traps much of the "fur" off of the place.

Our homeplace has always been the envy of area hunters and a great indicator of bird populations in our area. My neighbor has shared in June that he hadn't heard the cackling like usual but at that time I did not pay much attention to it.

As I shared in the previous post, the corn is all out in these areas. I wish I could say there was some standing corn close and the birds were in there. I fear that if our section doesn't have them, then there are not many out in the other areas of Iowa.

Following up with other hunting friends, the numbers were poor and only two roosters were this year's hatch. Harvested birds are last year or the year before birds. Most had none or only one bird to show for their efforts. It is truly heart-breaking to see the face of my 21 year old son at the end of this weekend's hunt.