Chick Questions???

[sdstate]

As i have not been able to spend as much time as home as i would like this summer/spring, i have not been able to take many drives or walks at home (Marshall/Redwood area) so i do not know the current situation on the pheasant hatch. It seemed like they had a good early nesting season, so i dont know wat to expect. The the DNR counts should be coming out soon, but i was just wondering how u guys thought they were doing in MN. THANX

[lawdog]

I'm really confused by what I'm seeing. I was expecting bumper crop of pheasants and I really haven't seen diddly for hatches. I'm seeing lots of adult roosters around, but no little families of birds...

[buckpredator]

Well I know of one hatch of phesants that are flying around my stomping grounds in the Jordan Area. Then I seen another batch that looked like they were just hatched. I don't know what to tell ya. Also last friday at work there was about seven newly hatched wood duck swimming in a small pond. It has been a strange year, Like you say it seemed like it would have been a great year for the little ones.

[Mike Walerak]

SDState,

I really would not be concerned about birds in MN if you are at SDSU. There are gobboons of birds out there this year! I don't even plan on buying a MN license this year. Well maybe not. I will have to excercise the hound before my weekend runs!

mw

[Dotch]

Since my job takes me off the road and into farmers fields daily across 10 or 11 counties in So. MN, so far what I've seen looks promising. Not every day we stumble across pheasant chicks but when we see the broods, they are large and the chicks have generally been large too. The last ones I saw a couple days ago were well over Hun size and could fly pretty well already. There were 8 - 10 in that brood. We do not get into the CRP acreages however and I suspect there are lots of birds in there we never see. Partridge are still scarce although I see my pet Huns around the building site here every once in awhile. A good farmer saw a pair of bobwhite quail the other day near his place. Last one of those I saw here was in the drought of '88, a male. It came up in the yard, whistled several times, (I answered) he jumped up on the edge of my lab's kiddie swimming pool and took a drink, then vanished into the CRP.