Outdoor Dads - Idaho Quail Hunt

My good friend Marc Warnke and I each have kids of similar ages. He has two sons (4 and 1) and I have two sons (7 and 4) and a little girl (2). We are both pretty committed dads, but there is always room for improvement, so we decided to make an obligation to get [...]

2008 South Dakota Pheasant Hunts A Success

The 2008 South Dakota pheasant season was an interesting one. Our Featured Outfitter recently sent us some of their pics from the season so far as well as some information.
The report is that there are tons of birds, but conditions have been fairly tough. Most of the corn is still standing due to high moisture [...]

High Pheasant Numbers Again for South Dakota

For pheasant hunters who were in the fields last year, 2008 may offer a sense of déjà vu as South Dakota once again boasts a near-record population of ringnecks.
Pheasant brood count surveys last year estimated a pheasant population that recalled the Soil Bank days of the 1950s and ’60s and this year’s brood counts estimated [...]

Updated CRP Rental Rates Make Conservation Programs More Attractive

PIERRE, S.D. — Updated rental rates are now available for new Conservation Reserve Program contracts. In many areas of South Dakota, average CRP rental rates have increased 10 percent to 20 percent, making them much more competitive with local cash rent.
“This increase in CRP rental rates will make enrolling environmentally sensitive lands such as [...]

South Dakota Biologists Optimistic About Prairie Grouse Hunting Forecast

With increased spring and summer rains experienced across much of the grouse range in South Dakota, biologists are optimistic about the outlook for grouse hunting in 2008.
According to South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Regional Wildlife Manager Andy Lindbloom of Pierre, sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chicken populations in South Dakota are monitored using information from [...]

A Hun Story

I just got back from South Dakota releasing Hungarian Partridge and doing some habitat management. If you’re wondering why we need to release Hungarian Partridge in South Dakota when we have so many pheasants, I wonder that myself sometimes too. But seriously, we are just trying to make our already outstanding bird hunting even better. [...]

South Dakota Pheasant Numbers Up Again

PIERRE, S.D.—Favorable weather conditions and good habitat have once again combined to produce a record pheasant crop in South Dakota.
Brood count surveys conducted by the S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department tallied pheasant numbers that once again hearken back to the days of the Soil Bank era in the 1950s and ’60s. Surveys that [...]

Spring Sharptails Look Good

Statistics from the 2008 South Dakota spring sharp-tailed grouse census indicate an increase in the number of male grouse counted compared to last year.
Statewide, 6,861 sharptails were observed on spring dancing grounds this year compared to 6,035 in 2007. Male grouse recorded per square mile increased from 5.9 to 6.7. More than 1,000 square miles [...]

South Dakota Submits ‘State-Sponsored’ CRP Proposal to National Office

PIERRE, S.D.—On behalf of more than 50 partners from across the state, the S.D. Game, Fish and Parks Department presented a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program proposal to the Governor’s Office last week. With the submission of this proposal on June 3 to the USDA’s Farm Service Agency by Gov. Mike Rounds, there is excitement among [...]

Pheasants and Other Upland Birds in Peak of Nesting Season

With the prairie winds waving around waist-high grass that has benefited from above-normal precipitation this spring, many nesting birds including pheasant, grouse and waterfowl are at the peak of their critical nesting and brood rearing time.
“Although it has been cooler and wetter than average along with localized hail and flooding, much of the state’s [...]

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