Hunters in the Mobridge area will notice more pheasants this fall as the 2010 South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks Brood Count survey shows a 27 percent increase in birds over the 2009 survey.
After a very good reproduction year in 2009, the pheasant population in South Dakota showed another increase after a good 2010 nesting season. (See accompanying chart.)
Although the 2010 brood survey count shows a small increase from the 2009 survey statewide, it was highest in the Mobridge area. The 2009 survey showed 8.54 birds per mile here, while in 2010 there were 10.85 birds counted per mile.
The Game, Fish and Parks Department completed its annual pheasant brood survey in mid-August, and tallied a statewide pheasants-per-mile count that is up about 3 percent statewide from last year, compared to the 27 percent increase here.
“We have seen good reproduction this year,” said GF&P Conservation Officer Doug DeLaRoi. “The birds had good cover and moisture in the spring. The crops left in the field helped them out a lot with good food sources throughout the winter.”
DeLaRoi said the young pheasants survive well in places where there is a constant water source and this area has that survival factor.
“There are some large broods out there, but not so many more older hens and roosters,” said DeLaRoi. “If the harvest goes well, we should have a good fall hunting season.”
DeLaRoi said the good cover in the area is a major factor in the solid reproduction season. He said the key to that cover is the acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
“The areas that grow bird populations are the ones with good CRP acres,” he said. “We are concerned that we are losing CRP and it is increasingly difficult for area producers to enroll their land in the program.”
He said stricter federal regulation are making it difficult for those wanting to use the CRP program and producers have to do what they feel is best for them and their operation.
DeLaRoi also said one of the reasons for the larger increase in brood numbers in this area is that we did not experience the flooding problems that occurred in other parts of the state. He said nesting areas flooded in other parts of the state and the brood numbers reflected the problem.
Every year from late July through mid-August, GF&P personnel survey 110 established routes scattered across the state to estimate pheasant production and calculate a pheasants-per-mile index. The survey is not a population estimate, but rather compares the number of pheasants seen on the routes and establishes trend information.
Survey routes are grouped into 13 areas, based on a local city, and the index value of each local city area is then compared to index values of the previous year and the 10-year average.
The 2010 statewide pheasants-per-mile average is 6.45, compared to the 2009 average of 6.26 and the 10-year average of 5.71.
South Dakota’s regular pheasant season opens on Saturday, Oct. 16 and runs through Jan. 2. In 2009, South Dakota’s official pheasant population estimate was 8.4 million, and hunters averaged 9.9 roosters each for a total season harvest of more than 1.6 million.
--Katie Zerr
