Well I saw the effects of drought

B

bones

New member
Went to do doves with my pheseant hunting buddies. Doves were great my limit plus some eurasians. Saw pheseants, a lot more than I expected. Saw the CRP and crops :(. Rough shape for sure, some areas were descent or even good but the horrible was far more wide spread. Guessing the good was from some sporadic thunderstorms that went through last month.

Saw the pheseant around wheat and or in the thickest blows of tumbleweed caught up in trees. One of our ditches was a pleasent suprise and held quite a few birds. The key thing and the most depressing thing is we did not see any young birds.

Here's to praying for a mild winter and no hail and turn around to this drought.


Have a Good 'Urn,
bones
 
Thanks for the update Bones!!! It may be a little tough this fall!!!:cheers:
 
I did some scouting today, saw a few birds near Sedgwick, they appeared to be savvy adults - 2 roosters flushed waaay out ~100 yards. I saw a hen run across the road. So, at least 3 pheasants out there. ;) Likely it will take some work to bag birds this year. Lots of dead / scorched corn standing in the fields. CRP in many places was thin, but didn't see cattle grazing in the fields where I have hunted in the past. It wasn't quite as bad as I had envisioned, but seeing field after field of 3ft tall scorched half-dead corn was more than a bit depressing.
 
Younger birds have been spotted by some of my hunting buddies out where we hunt recently. They said they saw four or five groups of roosters starting to color up.

I think this year will actually be good hunting wise. From the numbers I've seen and have been told about, a good bunch of birds weathered the summer. With the limited amount of cover birds will be concentrated and be forced to stay there no matter the pressure; mainly because there is no where else to go.

Next year will be the tell all. If the drought persist, more CRP comes out, the winter is bad, or there is any hail in the spring or summer things will take forever to rebound. Seen this before in some of the grouse woods I hunted in Va growing up. Drought had limited impact but years with back to back ice storms in early spring and the grouse having a natural five year cycle of ups and downs was absolutley devastating.

I wonder how this weather is affecting other prairie birds ie. prairie chickens and sharptails. Planning on Nebraska for there opener for a mixed bag. If Pheseant are way down, will the numbers for native speacies be as severly impacted? Also want to do PCs here in Co.

Oh well that is why they call it hunting and not going to the grocery store.


Have a Good 'Urn,
bones
 
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