Rough Winter Ahead for SD Birds

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

Active member
......and around rest of region for that matter.

Everything I saw had snow in it. Saw quite a few birds feeding in fields but tough to get through crusted snow. Tree belts had loads of snow. Every 5 row tree belt was full in all 5 rows. These are the toughest conditions I have seen since March blizzard of 2007. Here is photo of drift in fronnt of shack.

DCP_1795.jpg


A Good Jan. thaw would come in handy.
 
When birds are out in the open fields feeding in the middle of the day. That's not a good sign. They are stressed for food in their cover and it puts them at risk of being a easy target for predators. It's only early Jan., a long winter ahead yet. A friend of mine said that where there's standing corn. The snow is deeper then the cob height on the stalk. That means even the standing corn won't help. The blowing snow was caught up in the stalks just like in the tree groves and just piled full.

Onpoint
 
onpoint said:
The snow is deeper then the cob height on the stalk. That means even the standing corn won't help. The blowing snow was caught up in the stalks just like in the tree groves and just piled full.

Onpoint
Click to expand...

Around here we got 22 inches of snow and the end rows of the corn is blown in over the ears. If you get into the field it is not as bad. Plenty of corn for them in there.
 
This is the first winter where I have had concerns about food supply for birds. Normally snow is blown off enough corn and beans where they can get plenty. With winter cover blown in and a foot of snow in corn consitions looks tough. The bright side is soybeans. Those fields only have an inch or 2 of snow and are blown pretty clean. Cleaned a bird today that was full of soybeans.

Birds were holding way tight in the trees today as winds were 10-20mph. Got about a dozen birds today and many got away. Amazing amount of hens around.
 
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