# Pheasant survival



## danpeltz (Jan 30, 2004)

What do you think this weather in western north dakota will do to the pheasants?


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Well, it has changed my plans completely. I will not be going out west to Watford City this weekend, instead I will stay home and sulk (and then shoot roosters) in Valley City.

My guess as survival goes...the four- to seven-foot drifts in the western part of the state, and the icy-melty snow simply cannot be good for the birds, especially the young dumb ones.

Anyone else with a BIOLOGICAL view on this have a take? I'm already concerned for those birds out west. Yikes.

Hope to hear good reports from Dickinson and points north of there on the western edge this weekend. As for me, I'm staying put.


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## DJRooster (Nov 4, 2002)

Good question! I would think with all the rain and thick cover that was grown over the summer they would hunker down and other than a few young chicks survive a brief blizzard without too much trouble. Just an opinion because this hasn't happened for 130 years so we are in uncharted territory.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Yeah....I don't ever remember hunting in snow on opening day of pheasant season.


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## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

Talked to a couple of landowners from the west this morning, they are not optimistic. 4'+ snow drifts with wet and real heavy snow doesn't bode well for the pheasants.

Can only hope for the best.


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## Shorelunch (Aug 11, 2004)

I was supposed to go an hour southwest of Minot tomorrow, but my uncle told us to wait a week. The highway south of Minot was still shut down as of this morning and they still don't have power.

He thought the birds would make it OK as there's thick cover and it's supposed to warm up soon. It's gonna be a long week.


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## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

A friend related that he saw 5-600 LIVE pheasants on the side of the road between New England and Reeder today. They had up to six foot drifts and 15" on the flats. There is a lot of cover. I think mortality will be lower than feared. Hunting conditions could be tough (read ten pounds of mud on each boot), however, and hunters will need to walk, instead of drive the section lines as so many do. Burl


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Talked to my farmer guy in the Mott/Regent area and he lost some birds, but hunting will actually be better. It will be like late season hunting with dumber birds. They are all grouped up in shelterbelts and cattails. Most of the CRP is filled with snow. When you find them, you will really get into them. And by the way Nick, there are no Pheasants in the area you mentioned above. :beer:


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## goosehtr4life (Dec 16, 2002)

I have a good friend of mine that runs blade for Mclean County. I spoke with him last night after a long day. He said he typically sees anywhere from 200-400 birds a day and yesterday saw 25-30...

So, I hoping for the best, we are still going to give it a go this weekend and I will report back next week what we found.


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## Dan Bueide (Jul 1, 2002)

Good news, bad news...

Much of the SW was quite dry again, so the moisture is welcome for many.

But, one landowner I spoke with said they've already found a fair number of dead pheasants. The later batches, with less insulation, will probably be affected most, but these types of storms make even mature birds do seemingly goofy things that get them dead.

With many of the roads and most of section lines likely to be impassable and the cover very full with snow for the opener, it'll probably take a while to get a good read. Guess we just keep our fingers crossed for the birds and be happy the farmers/ranchers got some much-needed moisture.

Pheasantslayer, fill us in after you've been out and about for a while.


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## Field Hunter (Mar 4, 2002)

Was outr Elk huntng in Watford city are athis weekend.....between Richardton and Dickinson....no cover left....EVERYTHING covered up....saw not one pheasant. Watford City area just as covered up...everything melting good now but game wardens are fearing a pretty BIG pheasant die off with farmers reporting big numbers of dead birds.


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## always_outdoors (Dec 17, 2002)

Fellow pheasant hunters:

Was out in Central ND this weekend. Found a few frozen dead pheasants during our two day excursion. Maybe 4-5 over the weekend.

Spoke with a group of hunters at the cafe. They had 9 guys in their group and they found 12-15 dead ones. Another table commented on frozen birds as well.

Our group limited every day, but there was only 3 of us.

Did see 3 different covies of partridge too. Nice to see them around. Our group refrained from taking any.


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## northdakotakid (May 12, 2004)

we hunted the Scranton area...probably the most birds I have ever seen. 7 limits in an hour...thousands upon thousands of birds....the storms affects were very slight if at all. It really just helped us see the birds better, but pushed them into the corn.

It was nice though when the game warden there was telling everyone it was a 75% kill...what an idiot. That guy should definately be reprimanded, that is just plain wrong to be telling people that when it is definately not even close to the truth.


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## goosehtr4life (Dec 16, 2002)

Well, here is the report, We hunt in the coleharbor/Turtle Lake area, birds were found only in a few spots, in big thick shelter belts, or in big brush. We did not hunt any sunflowers or corn because of the snow. Driving around at night we saw several in the ditches by these fields so they are in there. None in the Cattails at all. We walked a couple Sat. morning that always hold birds and did not find a single one. Same with CRP. A field we usually see hundreds we saw four. Sat. we had to walk alot until we finally found them. We took 18 Sat. and 21 Sunday. Sunday we were done by 10:30. Sat. we hunted until 4:30.

We did find quite a few dead birds but there are still several to hunt. Hunting will be great again when the corn and sunflowers are gone. But right now it is tough unless you have access to heavily covered trees.

Maybe after a few days the birds will move back into normal holding areas, but that was not the case this weekend. When you found them they were in huge groups.


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## 4CurlRedleg (Aug 31, 2003)

> Maybe after a few days the birds will move back into normal holding areas, but that was not the case this weekend. When you found them they were in huge groups.


Same here, quite a few dead birds of which most were the younger variety. Typical holding areas were bone dry of birds, they are apparently in the seeds and corn.

A little more like hunting rather than shooting this go round! :wink:


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## DJRooster (Nov 4, 2002)

Dont' think....I would think that there are still plenty of birds around and they will be showing up shortly. I wouldn't think that one blizzard would kill all the healthy birds. Even if some areas lost 10-20% of the birds with the original populations being high there will be plenty of birds to hunt. I could be wrong but it wouldn't be the first time...


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## pheasantslayer (May 13, 2004)

This was probably one of the saddest pheasant openers that I have ever seen in my life. Yes all you people who were out in the southwest part of the state undoubtably saw pheasants, probably hundreds of them in the road. That might be because everypiece of cover from highway 22 west was covered beyond belief and the pheasants had no where else to go besides the road. I pulled out 9 dead pheasants from a tuft of grass underneath a power line pole. I thought that was bad enough until we got to a few lone shrubs in the crp. It looked like a holocaust whenever we saw what was underneath. One of my buddies counted over 25 birds dead under one tree. I estimate that we lost around 1/3 of the pheasants we've seen around. Some of my neighbors after the storm were riding up to the pheasants after the storm when they were checking on there cattle and picking them up knocking the snow and ice off the beaks before letting them go. Regent and Mott did not receive as much snow as further west of them did. I don't think the pheasants got hurt as much over there. Driving around and checking things out tonite, as more snow melts more dead birds are showing up. All the snow covered and flattened some of the CRP around here so it will be scary to see what got caught underneath. I know some of you might be skeptical, but if you really want to see what has happened out here i've got some pretty scary photos. I am not trying to scare any of you guys, there are still an insane number of birds around and the hunting will be unbelievable. Limited with 13 guys on sat and 9 on sun that took about 1.5 hr to each day. Just wanted to share some insight with you about what i am seeing, not necessarily what anyone else is. As for me I am putting the shotgun away until the birds can build up some fat reservoirs and get back into the cover. Saw a ton of roadhunting going down and the roosters where getting creamed pretty good. Good luck to all who go out and shootem up.


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Heavy snow might have minimal impact on pheasant hunting

The Associated Press - Monday, October 10, 2005
BISMARCK, N.D.

Heavy snow brought by last week's storm might not have had a significant impact on North Dakota's pheasant population, but it flattened vegetation and could make it harder for hunters to find the birds.

Randy Kreil, wildlife chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said Monday that reports of dead pheasants from hunters in the field were "widely scattered and varied in intensity."

"In some instances only a few birds were found. In other instances there were considerably more," he said. "One pattern that emerged is many of the birds that people are reporting finding dead are young birds."

Kreil said younger birds have fewer feathers and no fat reserves, and might not have survived the winter anyway.

Officials believe the small pheasants this time of year are the result of hens being forced to renest after the wet conditions that hit much of the state early in the summer.

Kreil said the snow storm's impact on pheasants "may be muted if there's a healthy population remaining that carries over the following spring, and habitat conditions stay good and nesting conditions stay good. They can quickly rebound."

The state's preseason pheasant population was up 20 percent from last year, based on results from August brood-count surveys. That was just slightly below the record year of 2003. The season began Oct. 8 and runs through Jan. 8.

Kreil said the storm's greater affect on the season might be that much of the cover in the southwestern part of the state was flattened by the heavy snow. Up to two feet of snow fell in some areas.

"Birds might be more concentrated and less spread out," he said.

In southeastern North Dakota, windy weather cut into pheasant hunting over the weekend, said Tim Phalen, a district game warden in Wyndmere.

"Success was a little down from what we thought it would be," he said. "Most people found some pheasants. It wasn't the larger numbers that we thought it was going to be."


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