ND sees drop in spring pheasant population

tikkalover

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North Dakota's spring pheasant numbers are in and there's been quite a drop.
North Dakota Game and Fish Department's upland game management biologist R.J. Gross says there was a 30 percent drop, likely due to drought the previous year.
But, the news wasn't all bad. Gross says spring weather this year has been good, so hens should be in good shape come nesting season.
He expects a good year, but says it will take several good years to bring populations up to the level they were at before the drought.
 


Jigaman

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numbers are still looking strong in Pembina county. Should be another great hunting season!
 

Riggen&Jiggen

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In the past low #s were blamed on cool wet summers now a drought is to blame. Pheasants sure are a delicate bird. But I suppose almost everything is struggling to survive with the habitat we have left in ND.
 


Migrator Man

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It doesn't help when the remaining population was bombarded with a ton of hunting pressure last year. Those birds got hit hard and it will be a tough comeback.
 

KDM

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Due to timely spring rains, the grass grew tall, earlier this year. Because the grass is taller this year the pheasant surveyors couldn't see the golf ball sized chicks. Therefore, because the pheasant surveyors couldn't see the clutches hiding in the tall grass we OBVIOUSLY had a population crash and should call "Chicken Little" to do her thing. That is all. Carry On!!!
 

bowhunter12

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I believe the better term would be to say the the numbers are "trending" down. Lots of variables in play... CRP field taken out here or there, etc, etc....this kind of stuff most likely doesn't get accounted for in these G and F high tech studies. The study was strictly a count based on roosters heard crowing, this was not a visual count on chicks observed. I believe they do the road counts on chicks later in the summer. For this study they may hear "20" roosters crow in a area...who knows if it was 5,10, 20 or the same exact rooster crowing every time, then compare it to last years data from the same area. Sounds like a pretty good study to me!!

https://gf.nd.gov/news/2497
 

Bowhunter_24

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Due to timely spring rains, the grass grew tall, earlier this year. Because the grass is taller this year the pheasant surveyors couldn't see the golf ball sized chicks. Therefore, because the pheasant surveyors couldn't see the clutches hiding in the tall grass we OBVIOUSLY had a population crash and should call "Chicken Little" to do her thing. That is all. Carry On!!!

While I don't like to defend the ndgf this was not a survey of chicks. Just adult birds
 

3Roosters

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Me and a couple buds decided to give the ND birds a rest and head to a blue plate pheasant farm for a couple weekends this fall. $17 per bird bought..and hopefully harvested..hahaha Hen and Roosters allowed, no out of state license required..or any license for that matter I believe. Not a bad deal in my opinion. Get the dog some work. I know I know some of you in the peanut gallery will think what fun is that to chase down recently released birds...or perhaps chase isn't the word. haha...like shooting deer in a fence:;:stirthepotWe are gonna give it a go this fall for a couple days to get our BIRD FIX and the dogs some work. Something different I haven't done in a number of years so we are going to do it.
 


Callem'In

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I also have plans to go to a "bird farm" a couple times this fall. It gives the new pup some time on birds that we know will be there.
 

guywhofishes

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I did a couple "benefit" hunts at lodges.

Shooting hens is something you don't get used to very easily.

- - - Updated - - -

also - Royce nearly ripped his wiener off on a barbed wire fence chasing a running rooster

cost me $500 to get humpty and dumpty put back together again
 

Frosty....

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Shooting hens is something you don't get used to very easily.

Yep, I had a buddy who raised pheasants south of Emerado. He had a bunch escape one year...so we got to work the dogs. I hesitated for a second or two on every dang hen that got up. They all had blinders on so it was easy to tell they were escapees, but dang it's hard to fight what's ingrained in a guys head.
 

( deleted account )

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Spring crowing counts by pretty well the same observers over the same roads and similar dates ( mailmen, g and F people, etc) is about the only practical way of assessing how many make it thru winter. Obviously can’t count hens sitting on eggs in heavy cover, or chicks in long grass! Eggs being incubated by hens mostly in June, though there are early and late nesting and renesting,so should be seeing clutches pretty soon.
Obviously not an exact science, though I’m sure the G and after would love suggestions from any armchair biologists to make it better and more accurate.
What is more important is the weather around hatching time, not too hot or too cold or too wet or dry, lots of grasshoppers, etc. a few hens can produce a lot of birds for us come fall, if conditions and habitat are right! All the hens in the world can produce few fall birds if weather is wrong and little or no habitat! Spring crow counts are only a small slice of the pheasant pizza.
Off topic, but I wish we had some kind of public funded CRP lookalike! Orgs like pheasants forever do a lot but I’ve been impressed that a lot of their donated money though spent locally, tends to go into private property off limits to most hunters. Not criticizingPF, just wish there was a better way to spread pheasant producing money out a little better.
 

Timbuk-2

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There really are a lot of arrogant know it alls on this site.
The spring count is a crowing count, used to estimate the number of crowing males. It is assumed as go the roosters, so go the hens. Hens are on nests during this survey,
 


Bfishn

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My spring crow count says i'll be drinking a lot in the Mott bars.
 

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