South Dakota Report

U

Uncle Buck

New member
Put on 500 + miles thru prime pheasant country yesterday. Drove from Sioux Falls west tru Winner to Mission, up to Pierre and back to Sioux Falls thru Highmore, Fort Thompson and all the way east on 34. This is pretty much the "Golden Triangle". Saw lots of birds, often a hen and rooster together. Saw one bunch of chicks. Do not beleive thew hens are all laying yet and probably a good thing as it is extremely wet. I guess I would say things look pretty much as they did last year.
Saw lots of deer, like the pheasants it appears trying to dry out as you do not normally see them at all hours of the day.
The high lite of the day was when my new pup, Flirt had a hen explode off her nose. I think she pointed it briefly but it suprized the crap out of her and she jumped back and yelped. Flirt is 3.5 months.
 
I leave tomorrow for a Custer to Pierre to Sioux Falls to Pickstown to Platte to Winner to Rapid City and back to Custer getting home Sunday. I'll do a follow up on what I see on this road trip. Oh great looking pup.
 
The hens are nesting and some are hatched out in the Winner area I know of one Alfalfa field that was cut 32 hens and one antelope were killed by the hay bine. They sit so tight they will not leave the nest. This is not uncommon though as many hens are killed this way every year. At the same time I know there will still be 400 or 500 pheasants killed within two miles of this hay field this fall.
 
I am leaving in the morning with my son's Legion Baseball team. Heading up to Rapid City for a tournament. Going to drive to Valentine NE tomorrow and then on to Rapid City Thursday morning,

I have never been up through Valentine or anywhere in SD. Should be a fun trip, and get some scouting done for future hunting trips.
 
You will not be going thru a lot of good pheasant ground tho some by Martin if you take 18. Most is east of Mission where there is more agriculture.
 
A friend just got back from flying to Oregon, buying a used motorcycle, and riding back to WI a week or so ago.

He stopped by to show off the new bike and talked about pronghorn antelope sliding under fences, and...

the "at least" 200 road-killed pheasants he saw on his way through S.D. By the time he got to SD, he was probably just super-slabbing it to get home, so I can't say any precise location in the state.

He figured they were young birds, based on passing glances.

Kind of "good news-bad news."
 
Thanks for the updates. It's nice to hear there is some sightings of good numbers of birds. It helps to keep the excitement in the summer lull.

Ric
 
Wirehairs said:
The hens are nesting and some are hatched out in the Winner area I know of one Alfalfa field that was cut 32 hens and one antelope were killed by the hay bine. They sit so tight they will not leave the nest. This is not uncommon though as many hens are killed this way every year. .
Click to expand...

Man....that really sucks. Wirehairs, about how many acres was this field you're talking about? Just wonder what the hen/nesting density was per acre.
 
Bad News

The main pheasant belt south of I 90 just get clobbered by a HEAVY rain storm, there are reports of water and debris over hiway 45 9 miles north of Platte and water over hiways 50 and 44 in Charles Mix county. The flash flood warnings are over a much larger area. I just got back yesterday from this area and saw lots of large pheasant broods with hens but the chicks were very small and this much rain is NOT A GOOD THING.

Hope for the best but I fear this will set things back for this fall. BUMMER:(
 
Man what a bad three days for the pheasant belt. That sucks! Things were looking pretty good until this happened. If anybody has any reports, please offer them up.
 
That rain cannot have helped. this was in an area I had the highest hopes for based on rain and conditions to date. I do not know how wide it covered.
 
It looks like it was a gullywasher and pretty wide spread also. Just shy of 4" at chamberlein. I'm sure the chicks/nests took a good hit from this one.
 
Last weeks rain totals

Some totals near Platte(in miles) 5 west 2 south 5.3 in, 7 west 1 south 7.1 in, 1 east 4.5 in, 20 north 3 west 8 in, 3 east 7 south 5 in.:(
 
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