Snow cover in the Pheasant belt

birdshooter

birdshooter

Well-known member
Minnesota's Pheasants have to be struggling mightily this winter. I don't recall any winters in the last.... geez I don't recall... has to be a bunch of years though since we've had this much snow on the ground at one time. Last blast dumped 11" where I am just NW of the twin cites. Has to be 25" or more on the ground.

Judging by the map below, SD looks like it may be in decent shape, at least so far.

http://www.intellicast.com/Travel/Weather/Snow/Cover.aspx
 
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We live in wisconsin about 20 miles east of stillwater mn, its so deep you don't dare stop your snowmobile off the trail! I haven't seen a bird since the first of the year until last Thursday when 2 roosters came to a bird feeder. Going to be hard on all animals. Think we're in line for more on Monday.
 
We have been fortunate here in NW Iowa and have missed the big snows. Been bitter cold and windy but pheasants look pretty good. Hoping it starts to warm up now.
 
pheasantaddict said:
We have been fortunate here in NW Iowa and have missed the big snows. Been bitter cold and windy but pheasants look pretty good. Hoping it starts to warm up now.
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I heard one of our meteorologist say this weather pattern can continue until the end of March:eek:. I really hope they're wrong on that one.
 
I hope not. The snow is one thing but this polar air is quite another. Weather guy this morning says temps become closer to normal starting by March 4th. I predict we will easily have ice on the lakes by the fishing opener 2nd weekend in May, at least in northern half of Mn.
 
This coming week we here in MN will have some of the coldest weather of the Winter.
I remember well from my building days. The first 10 days in March MN weather can and does get as cold and windy as anytime all Winter.
But there is a big change from early Mar to Late Mar in daily highs and lows. :thumbsup:
 
Western Dakotas and E MT have had snow, not as much as us. And have had a LOT more days in the 40's then us.
Most areas out there have little or no snow cover.

I have this site on my favorites. www.weatherstreet.com
From here you can type in any zip code or town in the US for hourly updated snow cover and snow forecasts.
 
mnmthunting said:
This coming week we here in MN will have some of the coldest weather of the Winter.
I remember well from my building days. The first 10 days in March MN weather can and does get as cold and windy as anytime all Winter.
But there is a big change from early Mar to Late Mar in daily highs and lows. :thumbsup:
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Yeah, March can be a killer at times. Those otherwise "spring" type rains start showing up, clash with winter's grip not quit ready to let go and in comes the heavy stuff:eek:.

Days are getting much longer though:thumbsup:
 
It has been cold here in north central South Dakota but the snow has not been an issue for most of the winter, right now we are mostly open and the pheasants are in great shape. I went to Pierre the other day and saw quite a few pheasants. I really am encouraged at this point about next year. We are not done yet but the pheasants here are spread out over my entire place this winter with plenty of food available they should come out of the winter ready to nest. With last year not having been a drought year the cover to nest in is plentiful.
 
According to the Farmers Almanac right or wrong IDK, we are going to get one storm after another in March. Nebraska has been pretty well open all winter as well as South East, SD.
 
SouthDakotaKid said:
According to the Farmers Almanac right or wrong IDK, we are going to get one storm after another in March. Nebraska has been pretty well open all winter as well as South East, SD.
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By following weather closely. :) It's easy to see anything long range like 4-5 days is only a guess, sometimes even one day a guess. For instance the last foot of snow falling around the TC area was forecasted for a couple three inches, Just the night before!:eek:
Not unusual, often it's all in the forecast once the precipe shows up on radar. :confused:

Anyway, there is the law of average. :( Droughts end with record precipe, floods! and after the floods more drought.
So yeah, Blizzards, heavy snow. Could be;)o maybe, sort of, knda sort of possible in March.
I forecast a 50-50 chance. :cheers:
 
March on record is when we receive our most snow fall as far as month's go so that could be, although the last few years it seems like that has shifted to April. Guess we will know when it is over, just like the weather man.
 
The northeast of SD has both snow and cold, but then they usually do and they have not had a good pheasant year for some time. The snow peters out about 30 west of Sioux Falls, tho a lot has blown into cover far east. We got the occasional break which gave the birds opportunities to get feed up again so we should be ok. Neverthe less, I've had enough cold tho another week plus coming.
 
Yeah Buck, Lets get into the March sunshine,:) get some days for the birds to find some bare spots of ground to feed up.

I doubt Winter crap is over yet. :(

I would just say though, the area out West, cold but, little or no snow cover. Pheasants can handle cold, just not cold and heavy snow.
 
Thanks for the report, Dennis - very encouraging!

I notice the area south and a bit west of Pierre has had very little snow - was snow free about 10 day's ago and now it appears they have 2-3 inches.
 
I saw four nice hens by the side of the road (Hwy 212) out by Olivia on Thursday morning. That made me hopeful pheasants are surviving okay.:)
 
NE South Dakota

Was back this weekend (which was crazy cold) Saw 10 birds around the home place most along the lillocs and a few along the edge of my PF Blizzard Buster 2 acre food plot. Not sure if they were posing for a future banner or just to motivate me to plant more next year. Birds looked good. Now I'm motivated to plant once the weather changes to Spring.

I did see that corn prices are forcasted for the $4 mark this year and Soybeans at the $12 mark. Just curious if that means fewer Acres of corn will be put in.

Viking
 
For sure, $4 corn will stop the insanity greed.
 
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