Tough week in Kansas....

P

Point!

Member
Looks like we've gone from one extreme to the other this year. One thing is for sure, this week was a tough one for nesting birds. Some "prime" counties were hit hard with rain this week.

The peak of the hatch is still a few days away, although hatching has begun and some birds are on the ground already. Those will likely be gone in areas that got heavy rain. Hopefully the rain was early enough that setting hens will re-nest.

I have found the map below to be very accurate for my area. Don't know how accurate it is in other parts of the state.

Perhaps Prairie Drifter could give his thoughts on the impact of this week's precipitation on the birds. Looks like his area got 1.5 - 2".

Point!

Weekly%20Precip%20Kansas%2005.22-29.jpg
 
Prairie Drifter. When you answer, could you educate us on what stage of the nesting cycle is most vulnerable to heavy rain. I would assume when the hen is on the nest the eggs have a good chance. What if the heavy rain comes when the nest is half full? Will the hen keep on laying eggs in the nest or start a new nest?

Pretty sure he's going to say high rain totals are much better than drought. Good news was the rain came over several days.
 
I think that it is important to remember that this is a point in time and few nests are in the same stage of development nor are they receiving the same conditions. They are in different habitats, on different slopes and exposures, and at different elevations on the slope. First, it is early and few nests have hatched. Yes, at several stages flooding of nests can drown or chill the eggs and kill the embryos. There are probably too many variables involved to say exactly what effect any particular rainfall event will have. Peak hatch (on average) in Kansas is around the 20th of June if memory recalls. Back date that 23 days for incubation and 12-15 for laying and you have about May 10-15 for the first egg for the peak. It's probably all relative to what comes from here on. If the impact zones change, then success can still happen in hard hit areas. If it stays in the same area and they never get a break, bad for the fall count. How the rain came has an effect too. The same rainfall amount over 2 days is different than over 2 hours. This is pretty much why the forecast is done in September, not in June. We still have to wait.
 
The June 20th date is quail. Pheasants are June 10 on average. I guess another variable is the above map is not as precise as the actual rainfall so it somewhat broad-brushes the effect of the rain shown. I do like to excite turtles, however, they usually don't show as good a response:cool: Thanks Turtle!
 
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To add visual aid to drifters post attached are hatching histograms from 2008 brood survey this pattern is very similarly each year

Also always better to have severe weather before peak hatch if nests are destroyed most hens try to renest after hens start to take care of a brood few will renest if lost

Saw my first pheasant brood of 14 chicks in Ellis county May 26, after the major storms had passed.
 
Point! I understand your concern about the pheasant hatch. But not to worry.

That map shows the estimated rain fall from May 22 to May 29, nearly a week. That is a great deal of time for the ground to absorb the rain water.

Wet or damp weather in the spring and summer (not flooding) in the southern plains ( Eastern Colorado, Kansas and the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandles) is alway beneficial to pheasant and quail.

When I was at Ft. Riley we would have infantry night time training I recall several night in June when big thunder storms would light up the night sky and drop 1 inch or 2 inches of rain. When we would get up the next morning, no standing water the creek, gullies and ground soaked it in.

The rain made the vegetation and grass lush green and produced and abundance of fat juicy insects. Remember the Summers of 2011, 2012 and part of 2013, hot and dry brown grass no cover for shade.

2015-2016 produced a strong El Nino, these El ninos pump large amounts of moisture into the atmosphere. The water that fall from these storms are full of minerals. The air in the atmosphere is 78% nitrogen and the lighting from the spring storms shatter the nitrogen molecules air. The nitrogen mix with the rain and provides natural fertilizer for the plants on the plains.

Look at all the past El Nino years 1982-1983, 1996-1997, 2004-2005 and 2009-2010. Most of those damp spring and summer years produced a good pheasant and quail hatch.

The hen pheasant and quail eat these healthy fortified natural vitamin plants (produce by these rain) gain weight and lay a bunch of healthy eggs more chicks and larger broods, natural laying mess. A fat healthy hen euterus can hold 100 egg follicles. Gypsum said that he saw 14 chicks on May 26.

These April and May rains are like money in the bank needed to produce fat juicy insects, cover shade and lots of protection from predators in the hot July and August sun.
 
Interesting thoughts. I agree that rain over a period of days rather than all at once makes quite a difference. The point at which the rain occurs during the nesting/brooding cycle is probably even more important. Gypsum's posting of the bell shaped curve for the hatch gives a good idea of when we might see the greatest impact from rain. Lastly, I completely agree that rain is better than drought.

I probably should have posted the daily rain amount as it may have a more direct effect on reproduction. The general thought is that rain events of greater than 1/4" per hour can/do have an impact on nests and certainly broods under 5 days of age. While much of the heavy rain was not in Kansas' pheasant range or in "fringe" areas, there was some heavy rainfall west of I-135.

The map below shows one of the pieces of data I collect. It is the estimated rainfall totals for one day. Arguments can be made both ways as to the benefit or damage that it may do to reproduction. Collecting and analyzing this type of data (as well as hail & temp maps) has paid off well over the past few years. I'm posting as a point of interest. Each can draw his own conclusions.

Daily%20Precip%202016.05.26_1.jpg
 
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Saw my first quail hatch today, June 3rd. Chicks mouse sized. Couldn't tell how many chicks were in the weeds running around.

Using Drifter's calculations: With 23 days for incubation and 12-15 laying the nest, that means the first egg was laid in the April 26/29 range.
 
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Good stuff Maynard! I read the Rolling Plains report this week and of the nests they've documented so far, the average size is 19. May have to extend the laying portion a bit if that translates north to here. WOW! I do think that the table is set for the chicks! Bug numbers are high! Forb growth is good and the grass is coming on. Barring any major disastrous weather events, they could make a move. The crow call numbers are a bit depressing with little movement in the major pheasant range. However, those numbers do not reflect what production will be. I do wish we had delayed this warm up another 7-10 days to force back harvest. It's Kansas, and that isn't fixed yet either. A block of good weather will allow established nests to come off and get more mature to tolerate any upcoming weather down the road.
 
Quail hatch

Saw a hen yesterday with 10 chicks. We were walking and when I got close they flushed. They were in a ditch next to a dirt road and they didn't fly far, just over the fence into the field. The chicks looked a little less than half grown.
 
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