Hunt_News
10-11-05, 08:00
Posted on Mon, Oct. 10, 2005
M O R E N E W S F R O M
• Weather
Heavy snow might have minimal impact on pheasant hunting
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."
M O R E N E W S F R O M
• Weather
Heavy snow might have minimal impact on pheasant hunting
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."