Broods on the ground

[MTBirdhunter]

Well, seeing broods here in NE Montana, have had some beneficial rains, great cover as we speak, and there should be plenty of insects for the little ones. I am the forever optimist, but thinking if mother nature cooperates, this could be a great fall, with quite a bit of carry over from last year due to mild winter, bird numbers in my part of the world looking real good. Busy training my 14 month old GWP and my 4 month old Large Munsterlander. Both are coming along very well, the gwp has last season under his belt, so he has a pretty good idea of what were doing. Would like to hear other reports on broods seen....thanks

 

[1_pointer]

That's great news! I need to pick a place and get something scheduled for this fall. My PP will be 1 in Oct and I'll be getting him on a lot of preserve birds here in IN, but want to take at least one trip somewhere for some wild birds.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Was just thinking that I'm out almost every day hiking around for work and this is the first year I haven't found any upland bird nests and I haven't seen any broods yet. Conditions are good ( If you don't take into account the major CRP losses in NE Montana). But thunderstorms with multiple inches of rain and some fairly large hail in places the last couple of nights isn't so good.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Was thinking about this thread yesterday while I did my first breeding bird survey of the year. Still saw zero broods (of any kind), but saw what to me seemed like an unusually high number of hens still with roosters on the roads. Also saw more duck pairs than I would expect right now, rather than single drakes. Saw evidence on the landscape of severe weather - washed out gullies in crop fields and some hail damage and such. I do bird work in my day to day life, and the weather has resulted in higher than normal nest and brood losses for my species of interest. It would not surprise me if that trend is also holding for other game species in this area.

I've got another survey yet to do next week in a different area. Hopefully I'll see some more encouraging signs.

 

[Kaitum]

Saw my first turkey poults in the Bitterroot Valley last week. Saw my first brood of California quail chicks two weeks ago.

 

[MTBirdhunter]

Was thinking about this thread yesterday while I did my first breeding bird survey of the year. Still saw zero broods (of any kind), but saw what to me seemed like an unusually high number of hens still with roosters on the roads. Also saw more duck pairs than I would expect right now, rather than single drakes. Saw evidence on the landscape of severe weather - washed out gullies in crop fields and some hail damage and such. I do bird work in my day to day life, and the weather has resulted in higher than normal nest and brood losses for my species of interest. It would not surprise me if that trend is also holding for other game species in this area.

I've got another survey yet to do next week in a different area. Hopefully I'll see some more encouraging signs.

Can I ask if you survey for the FWP? You up in Sheridan county? We had a bad storm go thru our place just outside of Glasgow Saturday, hail as big as golf balls, 70mph winds, thankfully, the hail lasted only a short time and not to heavy. Talked to my friends over in Sheridan county, they said they had wind and rain, thankfully no hail, they are still seeing quite a few broods of pheasants....we shall wait and see.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Can I ask if you survey for the FWP? You up in Sheridan county? We had a bad storm go thru our place just outside of Glasgow Saturday, hail as big as golf balls, 70mph winds, thankfully, the hail lasted only a short time and not to heavy. Talked to my friends over in Sheridan county, they said they had wind and rain, thankfully no hail, they are still seeing quite a few broods of pheasants....we shall wait and see.

Nope, not FWP. Surveying for the feds. I generally range through Sheridan county over into ND. The North Dakota side has had worse hail than over here so far. We've had a couple of brief, fairly light hails where I'm at but nothing super large. I talked with a couple of folks who say they have had some hail damage though, but I think that has been pretty localized, thankfully.

Did see my first pheasant brood this afternoon. I'm hoping that when hay starts really coming off, they will be everywhere! One positive note for this year though is that I'm seeing more huns than I've seen in a while after the mild winter. Usually I don't really run into them until I'm dang near to Canada!

 

[1976]

Glad to hear it Mtbirdhunter, on the other side of the line we have seen a few young pheasants around but we've been getting hammered by these hard rains and wind lately that it worries me. Every year the past 3 seems so optimistic and then mother nature opens up the faucet towards the end of june and the hatch goes in the toilet, hopefully this yr will be different but its not starting out that way. Theres always birds around, just not the numbers like before, then again the CRP isn't like it used to be also. Happy hunting this fall.

 

[MTBirdhunter]

Glad to hear it Mtbirdhunter, on the other side of the line we have seen a few young pheasants around but we've been getting hammered by these hard rains and wind lately that it worries me. Every year the past 3 seems so optimistic and then mother nature opens up the faucet towards the end of june and the hatch goes in the toilet, hopefully this yr will be different but its not starting out that way. Theres always birds around, just not the numbers like before, then again the CRP isn't like it used to be also. Happy hunting this fall.

I wish you good hunting this fall also. Birds are pretty resilient, I know CRP acres have been lost, there is good grass growth here so far this year, hopefully this helps!

 

[Coyotes-R-Us]

Momma grouse



We where fishing in heavy brush.
Momma grouse jumped us , she had 5 or 6 chicks that escaped as she kept us at bay.

 

[angels2011]

Anybody hear how the central part of MT fared with the hail and such? Probably not too well, I imagine.

 

[gritz]

We were really wet in NE KS during Turkey season and now we haven't had rain in 6 weeks. I have yet to see any poults. Its kind of worrisome for me. Im an avid turkey hunter. Got my Goulds this year. I just need my Osceola.

 

[Hunting Wife]

We have some family that ranch near Winnett. Normally pheasants everywhere, but they said they've seen only two birds since the storm a week or so ago. They got that bad hail - lost some windows and skylights in the house. We drove through there Sunday and the hail damage was very evident in places.

I've spoken with two landowners this week up here that stopped by to express concern that they have not seen any broods yet, either. I had hopes that they were seeing more than I was, so that wasn't good news. We had another pretty terrible storm last Friday night, with some flash flooding and lots of wind damage.

 

[MTBirdhunter]

Hail can be devastating to the local population. Their have even been reports of cattle killed in places, thankfully, we haven't seen that here this year. Still seeing and hearing of quite a few birds, and with July starting, it is nice to see everything so green, just had a little shower again last night, early this morning.

 

[Hunting Wife]

No doubt! Two years ago I had to stop at a WPA to check on something or other. The CRP field just before it looked funny, and as I got closer I realized it had been hailed on....badly. What had been nice looking grass was completely mashed into the mud, and the WPA was littered with at least hundreds, if not thousands of dead birds. Ducks, geese, shorebirds, some pheasants, everything you can think of. It was pretty gut-wrenching to see that level of devastation. That was the worst hail aftermath I've ever witnessed, and I can't even imagine what it must have been like when that was coming down! Luckily, it was an isolated incident in a pretty localized area and only seemed to have hit a quarter section of grass and the WPA. The other side of the road looked virtually untouched. There weren't many pheasants right around there that fall, but otherwise it didn't have a huge impact on numbers.

Saw a great sign yesterday though.....shorebirds are back, already on their way South. So the way I see it, fall migration has officially begun and hunting season will be here soon!

 

[Highwood]

We have very good cover all through this area, lots of nice rains and some bad wind and storms, spotty hail.
I go out a lot checking on the birds. I suspect early nesting pheasants were mostly unsuccessful. That's not all bad, better to have the hen lose the nest then raise 1-2 chicks. Latter nests with better weather, more insects and larger broods, still plenty of time for color by Oct.

 

[Hunts]

Sounds the same as every year in Montana. Localized storms screw up some areas while others are fine. A few birds will keep me happy, my 10 month old chessie and I will be spending most of our time chasing forest grouse anyhow.(and a few ducks and geese)

 

[MTBirdhunter]

Sounds like a strong storm, more spring like is heading across state this weekend, I fear it may have an effect on a lot of birds hatched recently. The moisture of course is always good, especially this time of year, though, a lot of the NE is doing well with moisture. Hopefully good weather next few days for the Montana Governors Cup Walleye Tournament!

 

[MTBirdhunter]

WOW! This has to be one of the craziest July's on record here in Montana.....been in the upper 60's low 70's during the days all week, showers, storms rolling thru area. The cover is fantastic, but I have to think it will hurt late hatches. I am almost wondering who will be first to report 70 bushel crops this year! The sweet clover has basically taken over the breaks, the yellow flowers are everywhere. Now it sounds like the heat will be back later next week and into August, we shall see.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Crops are mostly off, so the moment of truth has arrived. Sharpies look like they did pretty well, but they usually tolerate crappy weather better than the exotics. Seeing more pheasant broods now. Things look mixed - fewer older broods with just 1 or 2 chicks per bunch. More younger broods with 6-7 chicks per group but some of these are TINY. One brood this week still had stripes! Heard from some folks that they still had nests on their hay ground when they started cutting, so that's obviously not good. Overall it looks like average hatch was later this year, but we have a bumper crop of grasshoppers so they should have plenty to eat.

Waterfowl looks mixed based on what I'm seeing during banding. Almost no local Mallards or Pintails, so it appears early nesters were not super successful. Catching the hell out of local gadwalls, so late nesters apparently did better - no surprise there. Caught some ducklings that look to be about a week old and still seeing tiny broods pop up here and there. If winter comes early, some of these late broods will be in trouble.

Green wings have been pushing through for the last week and a half, and it seems like we got a fresh wave of blue-wings over the past couple of days. Heads up early season teal guys - they're on their way!