How is the storm going to effect the Pheasants?

[JD]

One worry that I have about storms like this is how it is going to effect the Pheasants.  It's weather like this that can kill a good amount of Pheasants.  Hopefully they will find good cover to protect themselves from the element's.

[Mayfly]

I think they will be fine......Burrow into the cattails for a few days and they should be good

[JD]

The only problem is that it looks like its going to snow most of the week, another storm is coming in on wednesday.

[labs4me]

A pheasant in good health can miss feeding for 3 weeks.  I think the winter has been "mild" for the most part. 

Even though we had a good spat of cold weather, the fields were open due to the lack of snow, so the birds were able to feed and keep fit.   They can handle the cold as long as they are able to consume enough to not burn up their fat reserves.  I suspect this week will do little to the population... unless they are living on very marginal land...

Good Luck!

Ken

[JD]

This storm isn't going to help either. :-\  This is the largest snowfall in one week in the Twin Cities area in 25 years.

[get the net]

I have friends that live in the SW part of the state, will let you know what they see in  the next week or so.  AS long as they didn't suffocate in some of the wet stuff, I would hope they will be fine.  Warm sunny weather next week, should clear the fields enough to start feeding again.

[perch destroyer]

 I've noticed a lot of pheasants coming into farm yards looking for spilled grain including the farm I work at. They will come right up to the feed bins and scratch around for something to eat.
 I think they are really having a hard time out in the fields. Hopefully the melt down and higher temps will settle this snow down.
 They are bunched up, I saw over 40 birds this morning at 7:00 coming out of a sheep pasture scratching around on a side hill of a corn field.
 We got about two feet of snow in S. Min. during the last two storms.

[Woody]

In a 6 mile drive I took the other day I saw countless pheasants.  The same trip today with some snowmelt-not a one to be seen.  I think they'll be fine.  There certainly is no shortage of them around here! :o

[JD]

That's good to hear, it's storms like we had that dump a large amount of snow at once that kills the pheasants.  I'm glad to see it melting now.

[get the net]

Well I think the conclusion is that the birds came through that little bit of snow very well.  Matter of fact it really showed how many were left over from last fall.  Very impressive numbers of birds overall and lots of carry over roosters.  Hopefully that equates into a 24" plus longtail for Duey and me.   :)  i would have taken some pictures of the numbers of birds I saw, but you would have thought I digitally enhanced them.  Mayfly would have been afer me to give up the secret location and it would have just gotten out of hand.

[GRIZ]

They managed the storm real well around here. Lost a few during the few days we had snow around. That was mostly to being on the roads looking for grit and getting hit by vehicles.

I knew we had more birds than ever but I didn't know we had this many til the storm bunched them up.