Spring Pheasant Update Including Avian Infuenza

May 14, 2015 by UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting

The next big media scare about pheasants in South Dakota is the bird flu issue across the Upper Midwest.  However, there is much to be excited about when it comes to pheasants in South Dakota.

Avian Influenza (AKA "Bird Flu") is a very big concern for turkey and chicken producers in the Upper Midwest.  It is important to distinguish where the concern is regarding captive flocks vs. wild flocks of birds that are capable of contracting the virus.

Currently, the only native wild bird that has contracted the bird flu in the Upper Midwest is one single Cooper's Hawk found in western Minnesota. Compare this against the millions and millions of turkeys and chickens lost in Minnesota and Iowa (all in confinement systems).

I am not concerned about the bird flu impacting pheasant numbers in South Dakota or any state for that matter due to the fact that they are spread out.  I would be more concerned if I was raising penned pheasants in large numbers.

Experts believe that migrating waterfowl are bringing the virus north via the migration, but they do not know how the disease is being contracted into these turkey and chicken barns.

South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks also has an excellent factual write-up on the subject for further reading.

http://gfp.sd.gov/wildlife/diseases/avian-influenza.aspx

SOUTH DAKOTA SPRING PHEASANT UPDATE

I have just completed my annual trip delivering food plot seed to our UGUIDE Pheasant Camps.  It covers about 1500 miles.  The visual sitings I had as well as confirmation from the landowner discussions suggested that bird numbers were higher than in the last 2 years.

Many of the local folks around the Armour area, back by my farm, were also commenting on how many birds they were seeing this spring.

Personally, If I could request weather for winter and spring that was the best for pheasant nesting the kind of weather we had this winter and spring would be it.  The past winter was dry and warm without as much as one single major snowstorm across the state. No snow amounts either on the ground and the drought monitor supports the fact that a large part of South Dakota and Minnesota were in a drought from fall through spring.

Just recently, the state started receiving much needed rainfall to boost crop production as well as insect and vegetation growth for young pheasants.  Because sloughs were so dry we don't have the flooding issues that sometimes impacts spring nesting due to saturated ground and spring run-off problems.  It is all soaking in at this point.  

In general pheasant nesting is best when birds come through winter healthy (which they did) and when spring nesting weather is warm and dry (which it is in general).  Reasonable amounts of precipitation are important to pheasant production.

We are looking forward to a good hatch this summer.