cutting alfalfa a couple weeks ago one small 25 acre field had two grouse with chicks, each with quite a few and two pheasants with chicks. One Pheasant only had 4 chicks with her the other had 10 or more. Made me wonder if they somehow got their babies mixed together and the majority stayed with the one hen.
See at least one mama grouse with babies every field I cut. Turkeys seemed to have hatched out good as well.
North Central part of state.
Yep! Pheasants, Turkeys, and even a herd of partridge. Twas good to see them little buggers. Even better is there seems to be enough grasshoppers around to make'em grow which is better than I expected due to the dry conditions as of late.
Lots of ducks geese and pheasants down here. The geese are damn near big enough to fly. Can’t wait for sept 1. Also it seems there are more doves than I have ever seen before.
5 to 10 nests or hens with a clutch. The last great year was 2007. They were everywhere. Typically, nests are in a little dug out making them ground level. The cutting bar of the haybine goes over the top not disturbing eggs. Afterward the hen is sitting out there exposed. I used to pile up a little hay to give her shade. Bad idea. The predators would key in on those.
Fritz:
Years ago when i would mow hay land for a rancher out west i would lift the 9 foot sickle bar up when a hen would fly up. A few times late and a few heads got chopped off along with a leg or two. And now and then a duck or two. Pulling a dump rake also, so that became an issue.
However, I also found out, next day there was nothing there as the hay standing up meant food for whatever wanted a meal. db
Yep db-2. A predator will truck across a large mowed area to examine a little tuft.
Did 60 acres today. Zero hen pheasants, zero sharptail. Did see a large covey of Hungarian Partridge with two adults. They flew out of harms way. Was it two hens with two hatches or was it one big hatch with mom and pop. Does the male Hungarian Partridge help raise the young?
The population overall will be down quite a bit, with smaller pockets of areas that have maintained their population. I think it's going to be a grim fall to get those daily limits of roosters.