As is so often the case in life not all benefits are free of consequences. While the dry regions of Kansas do provide good brood conditions and late into winter food source the same dry weather can work against us through a lack of summer rains preventing the tall prairie grass from growing to the higher pheasant holding levels over larger areas. Pheasant numbers and concentrations will follow that of the height and surface area of the highest quality prairie grass that provides protection from aerial and ground predation. Without this protective cover the pheasants even on a good hatch year will be well depleted come hunting season leaving fewer carry over birds for the next spring. Those that simply watch the drought maps may be fooled by the year long precipitation amounts indicating enhanced or degraded bird hunting habitat. Winter snowfall while contributing to shallow and deep soil moisture levels do little to provide for the hot summer grass growth, the period when prairie grass requires the most moisture. For the best upland bird hunting it is not a matter of total precipitation it is more the timing of the rains and seasonal consistency over long periods of years. Without sufficient summer rains the aerial and ground predator protective cover of the tall grass the adult pheasant may quickly become prey. However, in dry years not all is lost as another secondary effect of low rain fall years is the thinner grass allows for more quail habitat as the grass being thinner allows the smaller bird more range. All total the dry regions produce birds. It is more a matter of the consistency of that weather pattern from year to year that allows for ever increasing or decreasing concentrations of pheasant and quail. This last nuance is not recognized by outdoor magazine article writers seeking a "new" article to attract their readership regardless of the uniformly recognized characteristic of bird population cycles. In the central mid-west pheasant and quail hunting a consistent dry spring and wet summer will greatly enhance ground nesting bird production in all regions. Consistent year to year dry springs wet summers will cumulate into increasingly higher number of carry over birds, hatches and subsequently continue to increase making for better bird hunting and the "up" cycles that quickly gain national attention in the form of bird forecasts. Nothing too controversial in this assessment. What is often left to debate is the condition we have had in the past when either pheasant or quail numbers appear to be opposed rather than parallel. This occurs during years when the spring and summer are both dry leaving the quail their woody protective cover while denying the pheasant its survival effective grass cover. This condition is exasperated by inconsistent year to year weather patterns of varying dry or wet springs and summers. As the weather period combinations vary quail may be increasing their range and covey counts while the pheasant may be holding steady or declining.
When it comes to precipitation the ideal has been demonstrated over the years to be less than 10 inches total rainfall during May and June with much of that rainfall during periods of darkness when the chicks are under the hen's protection. Summer rains from July 1st through September 30 to be above 10 inches and preferable a lot more. Winter snowfall is of little consequence as the majority of the water in snow is evaporated by winds rather than absorbed by the soil as saturation or runoff. |
In many areas of central and more widespread in western Kansas, dry land/weather farming means no till row crop such as the snow cover in this picture allows us to show. The value of waste grain upland bird forage is shown by the wheat and milo stubble covering two growing seasons. In the case of no till farming the waste grain is available until consumed rather than plowed under. The advantages of dry weather farming continues as this same dry weather region allows for high chick survival rates during the critical hatch and brood months of May and June. These two advantages combined typically results in good to very good bird hunting. However, there is always the rest of the story.
