By Doug Leier
While the headlines get all the attention – “Pheasant Numbers are up 25%” – there’s so much more to the story and you don’t have to be a biologist or a hunter to understand the recipe for healthy upland game and pheasant populations. Weather and habitat.
Good nesting weather and spring grasslands help maintain and grow pheasant numbers. The right weather at the right time is preferred. Often that’s more of a wish than reality, while a winter with plenty of deep snow and cold can thin even the strongest numbers.
Because we live on the Northern Plains, the fringe of pheasant country, it’s often more bad than good working against the goal of more pheasants on the landscape and in hunters’ freezers.
Typically, weather drives fluctuations in annual trends, and habitat combined with weather patterns — good or bad – drive long-term trends. For North Dakota, the needed grasslands have continued to decline since the peak of CRP in the early to mid-2000’s, so long-term trends remain down despite our short-term peaks.
Our current statewide weather pattern is becoming wetter after a few years of drought between 2017-19; but the pattern has also been accompanied by a long, record-breaking winter in 2022-23 and a wet and cold June this year.
What this all means is our habitat and weather haven’t been cooperating and it’s been an uphill climb for birds, biologists and hunters.
Winter of 2023-24 was milder than typical, resulting in increased pheasant and grouse trends last spring. During spring pheasant crowing counts, observers documented 37% more pheasants heard statewide compared to 2023.
Wildlife managers also take into account the conditions during the survey periods. According to RJ Gross, Game and Fish upland game biologist: “We had poor conditions at the beginning and end of our survey window due to a nationwide “heat bubble” that occurred during the early part of our survey (July 25-August 03) with no precipitation and poor dew conditions, and the last week of the survey period, when many observers complete their remaining routes, was also poor with high winds and little to no dew. Vegetation was tall in all but the western fringe of the state.”
During the late summer roadside counts this year biologists observed a statewide increase in pheasant density.
Gross added that while we had a mild winter and optimistic start to the breeding season, we experienced a wet, cold June (11 nights below 50°F). The cool, wet weather appears to have impacted partridge and sharptail particularly, which also led to smaller brood sizes and age ratios for pheasants. Grass conditions look good in most of the state following the wet summer, with poorer conditions as you move west, roughly from US Highway 85.
Overall, going into fall, the vegetation cover appears good for winter cover, and should help kickstart the 2025 nesting season.
I’ve heard reports through the years from farmers and mail carriers, bus drivers and truckers. Their eyes don’t lie and at times line up with what we’ve found. But from Wahpeton to Williston and Grafton to Golva, the numbers are just that. Numbers.
What you find in the field or don’t find doesn’t matter what the numbers say. Stay safe, obey the rules and enjoy the great outdoors.
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