SD Brood Count Survey Guesswork. Hmm?

I don't know if I have ever been in SD with a wind under 10mph!

I really wonder how many trips are canceled because of poor count numbers. I would guess less than 10%.

Any who.....hoping for the best and will deal what is dealt
 
Jim is Correct!

Life-long Iowan here and have been involved in road counts in the past. Iowa brood count surveys are conducted on 30 mile routes during August specifically to encounter the heavy dew which causes the birds to seek open and roadside areas to "dry" off. Early summer days typically do not provide the appropriate dew to conduct counts. We have had years where August has brought low humidity and very little morning dew which has thrown off counts---but not by much.

Having yet to encounter a chick while traveling and conducting my field work my free advice is to enjoy what you have boys!:) I would accept any increase in Iowa numbers this year as a gift from the heavens. I enjoyed 50 years of excellent bird hunting here and can promise you will miss it if you live to see the decline. So all in all enjoy the 5--10--15 or whatever percent increase you have. Many of us are experiencing much "less to crow about".
 
SDJim is very correct, our group use to go to Iowa to hunt for about 5 years, but we use to do our own road survey about the middle of Aug. would see lots of birds so we knew we were set. The one year we didn't make that early survey was the year that the birds started to take a total puke. Now we do our hunting in SD and depend on the state and Chris to give us an idea of what to look forward too. I wish we didn't have to drive almost 700 miles to see wild birds.......you want something to complain about come to Indiana.
 
One of the upspikes I have been hearing is the increased sightings, statewide, of seeing young birds recently. Only thing I could correlate to this surge is that many hens did push their nesting cycle back to account for late spring. Lots of heat in the weather now which is just fine for young broods.
 
Reports of young chicks from farmers finishing haying the past couple of weeks. Also lots of grasshoppers/bugs for them. Hot weather for another week at least. Neighbor baling hay yesterday said he had to slow down to let a brood of little bitty chicks get out of the way. Think we will be good this season, but could use some rain soon.
 
Just got a report from Miller area on seeing lots of very small chicks (not even flyers yet).

Another factor that could play well for pheasants is the abundant rainfall in early august that delayed wheat harvest by 3 weeks giving hens and their broods more undisturbed cover. Lots of this wheat was getting pretty weedy too attracting some insects in as well.
 
bird counts

The lower brule rez just put out thier counts and they were 70 percent lower
than last year and 75 percent lower than thier 10 year averages. I hope something was wrong with thier counts. they reported a 30 percent decline in pc counts and a 42 percent decline in sharptail grouse lek counts. that was adult birds only on the grouse counts but don't know how good they nested or survived.
 
im not talking about you personally jfreeman but that report seems like a crock of S*** & in the hole other direction of every other report i have herd so far???

i seen loads of prairie grouse in SD more then pheasants i wonder what would be the decline in the prairie grouse #s??? i herd last yr they were all over as well more then other yrs???

something is fishy maybe they did the counts at the wrong time or conditions??? i mean many states are still counting or doing surveys due to the late late nesting that occurred in many pheasant hunting states like ND SD MN ???

just sounds way doom & gloom to me!!!
 
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I kind of think the same way but time will tell, I saw lots of grouse in Sept., and nov. that is a huge decline if true and I hope it is not that bad but am going in Sept. and judge for myself. but that is the no.s they put out,and it may be harder to judge the pheasants this year acct. way better cover than last year. we will see how the state counts compare, sure hope they are better.
 
yeah cant wait for the SD survey now lol it will in no way shape or form resemble that survey id bet $$$ on it 70% decline for pheasant & 30% for PC 42% sharptail what the hell was the reason they all died or declined the drought???

hope it was a typo & it was up 70% 30% & 42% for pheasant chickens & sharptails that would be more believable lol

do please report what you see 1st hand
 
Hopefully is it a typo, like noted above.

If not, why would they (negatively) exagerate their numbers?
 
delay of survey portends negative news, IMO...they probably kept waiting for more conducive weather so they could use that data instead of the earlier, more negative reports from the early stages of the counts...just a theory...hope I am wrong...kind of influenced by the lower brule report...again, hope I am wrong!
 
Unfortunately, I dont think its a typo.

They wont miss the PC and STG count when they do it on the spring leks. I would think that nesting success between pheasants and grouse would be comparable




Fall 2013 Hunting Forecast:

Pheasant brood surveys have been completed for 2013. Total pheasant numbers are down 70% compared to 2012 and are 75% lower than the 10-year average; this year's counts are the lowest since our brood survey began in 1985. The extreme heat and severe drought of 2012 had a remarkably deleterious effect on our pheasant numbers; we continued to lose young and adult birds late into the summer and fall. Though we had a mild winter, the spring nesting season was unusually cool and wet which also hampered nesting success in some areas. Beginning the nesting season with low numbers of breeding birds along with less-than-ideal nesting conditions have resulted in poor production this year.

Prairie-chickens and sharp-tailed grouse numbers are measured on early spring breeding grounds (leks). The same conditions that severely affected pheasant numbers have also had negative effects on the prairie-grouse populations. Lek surveys resulted in a 30% drop in prairie-chickens and a 42% drop in sharp-tailed grouse; these numbers were the second lowest counts in the last 20 years. Brood production and survival of prairie-grouse is unknown.

Habitat conditions are excellent. Adequate and timely rains all spring and summer have resulted in excellent grass cover as well as good to excellent stands in food plots. Shelterbelts experienced some mortality due to last year's drought but have grown well this year.
 
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in previous years the report were higher. They have their own wildlife department. A big chuck of their income comes from hunting. I was present the last couple of years there, there were scads of birds, a level down would not surprise me! Down from what? 300 birds per section? Well, do the math.
 
I talked to a farmer west of Pierre this week and he says they have seen several early broods and he believes that the second hatch will be good as well. They also have great food and cover for the birds compared to last year. My farmer is expecting an increase over 2012 and expects it to be a good increase.
 
UGUIDE said:
What would speculation be without the famous "second hatch" being mentioned?:rolleyes:
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Well Chris that should be a statement (second hatch) that will keep the thread going strong---LOL--- what about the third or fourth hatch? :D:D
 
reddog said:
Unfortunately, I dont think its a typo.

They wont miss the PC and STG count when they do it on the spring leks. I would think that nesting success between pheasants and grouse would be comparable




Fall 2013 Hunting Forecast:

Pheasant brood surveys have been completed for 2013. Total pheasant numbers are down 70% compared to 2012 and are 75% lower than the 10-year average; this year's counts are the lowest since our brood survey began in 1985. The extreme heat and severe drought of 2012 had a remarkably deleterious effect on our pheasant numbers; we continued to lose young and adult birds late into the summer and fall. Though we had a mild winter, the spring nesting season was unusually cool and wet which also hampered nesting success in some areas. Beginning the nesting season with low numbers of breeding birds along with less-than-ideal nesting conditions have resulted in poor production this year.

Prairie-chickens and sharp-tailed grouse numbers are measured on early spring breeding grounds (leks). The same conditions that severely affected pheasant numbers have also had negative effects on the prairie-grouse populations. Lek surveys resulted in a 30% drop in prairie-chickens and a 42% drop in sharp-tailed grouse; these numbers were the second lowest counts in the last 20 years. Brood production and survival of prairie-grouse is unknown.

Habitat conditions are excellent. Adequate and timely rains all spring and summer have resulted in excellent grass cover as well as good to excellent stands in food plots. Shelterbelts experienced some mortality due to last year's drought but have grown well this year.
Click to expand...

I was of the understanding that PC mated 4-6 weeks earlier, hence different competition factors with mother-nature?
 
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