SW minn flooding

[nater]

I generally agree with nater's assessment.

Use last year as an example here. Areas that received massive flooding had lower road side counts; whereas areas that received rain but NOT floods had greatly increased road side counts. Rain is good - it creates moisture and lush habitat and a surplus of bugs for birds to eat and grow quickly.

But a monsoon at the wrong time has devastating effects, and its very possible (if not likely) that this occurred in some localized areas mentioned above.

I can say with relative positivity that in nearly 25 years of hunting here in MN that wetter springs often produce more birds than ones that are riddled with severe drought.

The one aspect that I can concretely agree with is that mortality among adult pheasants the past two winters has been nearly nonexistent. When I was turkey hunting this spring, there were a lot of adults around. These fake winters are certainly reducing the amount of birds that succumb in the winter months.

I saw the same thing turkey hunting/scouting. Nearly got run over by a herd of 30+ hen pheasants in March while scouting a WPA. Then when I hunted it in A season, was completely covered up in birds (none of them turkeys, unfortunately).

 

[nater]

I've now had rain 26 of the last 40 days at my house in SC MN. This is concerning. Flooding/ponding have not been significant issues over that period, but that's a lot cold and wet for the chicks. I did see 8 broods on my morning coffee drive yesterday, with a good mix of age and brood size. But I did see a handful of solo hens with no chicks, which is never good this time of year. I'd call it a mixed bag overall.