You're right, a total lack of habitat. That's why we see birds really concentrated in areas with habitat. I have never seen farmers and ranchers bale as much hay as they do now. And a lot of it goes to Texas. Those out of state swathers monitor that drought monitor and come a calling when emergency hazing and grazing opens up.
Sounds like a great trip! I went out on Saturday but was done by noon because of the weather and the running birds, we really need some snow to break up the running lanes! I figured Sunday was a bust due to wind and had to go back to work on Monday when I really wanted to be out.
Yea, Saturday was tough to corral them…too warm. I thought Sunday was going to be a bust too, but they were in the heavy CRP and Phragmites if your dog could get them to flush. Monday was the best. Cold, but at least it wasn’t a wind tunnel and the birds were still in heavy cover.
I have shot 10 birds in the last 4 outings since the 20th of December. I will be hunting again tomorrow. Not seeing too many, or what I would call many. 3 or 4 covey's each trip but I am not looking for them. That is a long way from 15-20 covey's when hunting was good. I had a landowner deny me permission to hunt Tuesday on an outstanding piece of CRP. I saw a dozen birds flying in there so I asked for permission. His exact words were " I am not going to allow permission until our birds numbers come back". Which is exactly what I am seeing living here and being out here every day. While it may be more pheasants than you have seen in the last 5 years, which it is for me as well, our numbers remain down, and a way down from good years. A good year would be 750,000 birds harvested and we will be below half that.
I used to hunt a bit in Rush County about 20 years ago. Bird numbers were amazing. The farmer we used to hunt on has turned a lot of his CRP to crop and somehow, the pheasants have gone away. Very sad
This should be the focus of Pheasants Forever in Kansas. Not buying land, not trying to increase public access, but focusing on issues relating to farming, ranching, and habitat loss.
Me and my friend are always pointing out the rotting bails around all the mowed areas and thinking how big of a difference not wasting that grass would make
Some of the excess CRP hay bales may be required as part of the program. Much of the CRP was in a 10-year contract, and this time is up. Some of this is getting converted back into farm land but a lot of it is being re-enrolled. Either of these scenarios the grass either has to be swathed and baled to enter the next phase to plant forbs. A light discing is another practice if being re-enrolled. These must occur before spring nestings occur. I think the bales of hay are a good sign in some cases. It could mean the land is being re-enrolled for another 10 years.
Could be but when they fence it off and put cattle on it, that probably isn't. But the bottom line is, many farmers, ranchers, and landowners are begging to cut CRP every summer. And much of the CRP swathing is done by out staters that come knocking when we start inching towards D2 each summer. But we are also talking about swathing every inch of grass everywhere. Not just CRP. It would be nice to see PF working the USDA and the state of Kansas to come up with a program to leave tall wheat stubble in, a corners program, or a program that leaves small strips of grass similar to pollinator strips. Mowing of public utilities needs to be banned during the nesting and brood raising period. But wheat stubble is the key. Long before CRP, wheat stubble that was knee high was the best habitat in Kansas. And it really got good when the weeds grew after harvest. Back then farmers didn't spray all summer long. They even spray the ditches now. And the county has been pushing out of the plum thickets that were in the ditches.
