By Dennis Foster

As far as Pheasants are concerned, South Dakota has more than earned the well deserved reputation of being the number one destination for not only bagging your limit, but for seeing a truly incredible amount of birds. Now, I do realize that many of you are fully aware of the harsh winter and wet spring conditions we have experienced and that a lot of you follow the annual road counts and the reduced number of birds spotted during these counts. But, as with most things, we need to dig a bit deeper to see the real truth of the matter.
First of all, the road counts can be a bit deceiving. They simply provide a “guesstimate” of the population. At best, they are far from scientific as it is impossible to know where the birds are or what they will be doing on any given day...particularly when the counts are conducted. There are several factors that can play a huge role in the amount of Pheasants actually spotted. Weather is key. A windy, blustery, or rainy day will see the birds tight into cover and not showing themselves. Conversely, a moderate windless day will see many up on the roads and visible. Probably the most important factor is the amount of standing crop along the routes. With progressively more row crop planted over the years and in full foliage at the time of the counts, it can be darn tough to get even a very rough estimate of the population. Another wild card is that many of the Hen’s nested late or even re-nested due to wet conditions, making the late and consequently smaller chicks all but impossible to spot in the tall grass (remember all the moisture) unless right in the middle of the road. As the crops mature and begin coming off, we can then more accurately gauge what is truly going on.
Regardless of the count numbers made a couple of months ago; out here in the real world where we are around the birds every day, things are much, much better than they would first appear. I would have to agree that as a whole South Dakota’s Pheasant numbers are down a bit-but consider this is only down from historic high levels. Our wild birds are notoriously resilient and always manage to survive about anything Mother Nature throws at ‘em. This is written in Mid October and with all of the Beans and a good portion of the Corn already harvested, we are once again starting to see some very encouraging numbers. This will only improve as the rest of the corn will be in the bin within a couple of weeks.
I would venture to say considering all of the facts noted above that we will see total harvest numbers in line with the last few years. This is due to the fact that there are more than enough birds to hunt, as well as not having to contend with the amount of corn that has been in the field the last couple of seasons. Thus, making the birds much easier to find and ultimately harvest. Recent rains have alleviated a very dry late summer and the dogs will also find it much easier to scent and track the birds as well.
So, in reality all is good over here in the still reigning Pheasant Capitol the World. On a very positive note, all of the doom and gloom predictions had many hunters cancel their trips, thus leaving a large amount of openings and opportunities available for those wise enough to never count South Dakota out! If you have never been here before, there is still plenty of season and birds left (runs till January 1st with later season hunts being better anyway), so considering a trip would be a very good idea. For those of you who have witnessed firsthand what we have to offer, come on back and see for yourself that things are just as good-maybe even better-than you remember.

Dennis Foster is an Outdoor Writer as well as a Fishing and Hunting Guide in South Dakota

I've seen some decent numbers of birds while out on our ornothology field trips.  Hopefully with the mild winter and dry spring (so far) we can get bird numbers back up.