Well, I got a field of corn out, and don't have much good to say about our pheasant population. Usually, the combine scares out 6 or 7 of them, and last year I saw maybe 15 or 20. This year, however, I only saw one lone bird.
Not sure what was the cause, but there seems to be a coyote behind every tree this fall, so I suppose that could be the cause. Either that, or the turkeys are running them out (our turkey population is getting pretty high anymore). The other possibility would be bobcats (they are showing up more and more too) or maybe a disease or something.

Just wondering if it is like this everywhere, or just around here.

PS There are a lot of deer, too.

 

My partner went on a Pheasant hunt in S. Dakota a week ago & slayed them up there. They limited out the first day & almost the same the second day.

Our turkey population is out of control here as well, they are starting to get hit on the highways around here!

 

Some friends of mine went to Nebraska last week, the first day, a group of six got one pheasant. THe next two days were only slightly better.

I just got back on thursday from South Dakota. We hunt North Central South Dakota and generally we do verry well. Not this year though! Our group of 8 killed 50 birds in 5 days. That's great for just about anywhere else in the country, but normally we would have gotten 85-90 birds in 5 days. All of the farmers we talked to said that the bird count was down quite a bit from last year. We are starting to see more new CRP land that has been put aside in the last two years. Hopefully, this will help them survive the brutal winters that SD can have.

Good luck to everyone this hunting season!

Dan