South Dakota Report

UGUIDE

UGUIDE

Active member
Holy Cow,

I was out meeting with a landowner west of Aberdeen and all the land we looked at had birds on it. We saw no chicks though. Area around Aberdeen is wet and has some standing water in fields. Will be good fallow areas for all season cover and as moisture drys the bug should be plentiful for the chicks.

I decided to take Hwy 45 south back to lodge which was about a 2.5 hours drive and I had not taken this route before. Takes you through Miller, and Kimball and Platte. Wonderful road.

I lost count of near misses and literally missed pasting 3 hens by inches. Saw many hens and many more roosters. Alot of deer too.

Grass on roadside edges was anywheres from 2-4 feet tall.

Temp got up to 88 degrees. Toasty.

Will be out at farm all week and will have some more reports.
 
Thanks for the update. I hunt near Geddes, SD. Always good to hear about the birds around that area.
 
We drove that too Chris earlier this spring

Lot's of birds, father inlaw lives in Highmore west of Miller

Just came back from our place and habitat looks outstanding

Chuck
 
Chris, Ive not spent any time in pheasant country during this time of year, but used to live in Florida where I was a forest. We had a fair amount of quail. Late June into July I would start to find brood coveys. I never say a chick during my daily hikes until they could fly a little. Otherwise momma kept them hid. I think the same thing for grouse here in WI. We don't see any until later in the summer when they start to fly. I think most of the time they hunker down and you walk right by until that time they can take to wing.

Please keep the reports coming. It's only June, but never too early to get thinking about the fall.
 
Well guys it is 10 o clock at night and this morning started with 1 inch of rain and it is WET in the fields. Good thing sis the heat and humidity are UP. 90 degrees all day. Bugs caked on windshield from trip last night and I have been shoeing flys out of lodge during day. Insects = broods.

Some grass on edge of roadside dithc is 4 feet tall. No kidding.

Everything is JUICY. I hand seeded 3 acres of trees in between rows because was too wet to run ATV down rows. Seeded sweet clover, alfalfa and tall wheat grass. I plan to let rain drill it in and hit it with roundup in a few days.

Trees looks good except for Ponderosa Pine. They either were bad seedlings or do not like all moisture. Any ideas?

Sounds like July is time to look for chicks. A later hatch is best as we just go HOT here this last week.

That is todays report.
 
A month ago when I was in the Gregory-Winner area... you needed have your hands on 2 and 12 because there were pheasants all over the damn place. You were swerving all over the road trying to avoid them. Honestly, it was rediculous... they were everywhere.
 
That's also great news webguy. I am from the Burke/Gregory area, that is where I grew up. I hunt in that area on opening weekend. Thanks for the update.
 
Day 3

Reporting from pheasant central..........

right now I am between to major weather systems that are procuding tornadoes. I can walk outside and see both of them firing off to NW and SE. Amazing lightning shows.

Today I saw my first brood. On edge of food plot I was about to spray. Just little guys that could barely move through cover. Maybe 10 or so.

Neighbor said his brother saw hen with brood of 16. Nice !.

I sprayed all 40 acres of food plots today thanks to help of new GPS bought on eBay (how did I ever think I could do this without GPS before).

This is a major technology must.

Learned that if you have alot of seed on head leftover you will get a lot of volunteer milo. I am worried that it is too thick in food plots.

Day 4 dawns tomorrow. Task at hand is to control all thistle
 
fowlballs said:
Thanks for all the reports. I hunt just west of Sioux Falls area. Any reports from that area so far?
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I don't know that area east of Mitchell at all. I will need some help from other guys here.

PS. Saw another brood or 2 on ground. Some small and so thick all you can see are weeds move but you can tell there is a little herd moving out.

Just on for lunch from spray and I am respraying areas sprayed before without GPS but I picked up a GPS poff ebay and it is working sweet and will remove all the driver issues from the deal.

With price of chemical I am thinking it will pay for itself.
 
Day 4 and I'm outta here

Went into town last night and saw 3 separate broods on road to town which is about 15 miles. It was 80 degrees and I was surprised to see them on road when so hot at night.

Other reports of brood sightings of 12,14,16 chicks.

The cover is thicker than I have seen since 2001. Brome grass is like 4 feet tall in places. This is grass that gets 2 feet tall on a good day.

That'll be all for now guys.
 
UGUIDE said:
FCS, I noticed on the way out that MN did not seem to be mowing road ditches as intensely as years past. I wonder if budget has something to do with that. Maybe wildlife will benefit?
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yes I have noticed that too, they have been spraying them some for thistle then mowing them later. That has to help. The early hatch. It realy has been good hunting here for a number of years now. But the crp is dwindling fast, we'll see how that plays out.
 
fowlballs said:
Thanks for all the reports. I hunt just west of Sioux Falls area. Any reports from that area so far?
Click to expand...

Lots of rain and very wet from Sioux Falls to Spencer. Have not seen any chicks yet, but lots of roosters and a few hens. Presume rest on nest. The few hens I see are usually with a rooster.
________
Omega
 
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I spent June 29-July 1 helping my cousins put up hay in central Ziebach county, west of the Missouri river. There were never any pheasants that far west in that area until the last 3-4 years when a local stocking effort started taking hold. This year I heard roosters crowing around the old farmstead. In the hayfields we found one nest totally hatched out and another with 8 eggs unhatched and a nervous hen pheasant. The nest was miraculously not destroyed by the tractor and hydraswing swather. We were able to save the nest, piled up cut sweet clover around it and hope that she will be able to hatch that nest out. The alfalfa, sweet clover, and grasses were tall and thick. And lots of bugs.
 
UGUIDE said:
Well guys it is 10 o clock at night and this morning started with 1 inch of rain and it is WET in the fields. Good thing sis the heat and humidity are UP. 90 degrees all day. Bugs caked on windshield from trip last night and I have been shoeing flys out of lodge during day. Insects = broods.

Some grass on edge of roadside dithc is 4 feet tall. No kidding.

Everything is JUICY. I hand seeded 3 acres of trees in between rows because was too wet to run ATV down rows. Seeded sweet clover, alfalfa and tall wheat grass. I plan to let rain drill it in and hit it with roundup in a few days.

Trees looks good except for Ponderosa Pine. They either were bad seedlings or do not like all moisture. Any ideas?

Sounds like July is time to look for chicks. A later hatch is best as we just go HOT here this last week.

That is todays report.
Click to expand...

Your Ponderosas could very well be receiveing too much water. Pines in general don't like a lot of water. Ponderosas do great in Colorado, and we all know how arid it can be here.
 
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