Article Photos

Advertisement

It appears that North Dakota's upland game birds could be struggling to bring off broods this summer. Although annual brood surveys conducted by the Game and Fish Department won't be completed until the end of August, early returns indicate that sportsmen should be prepared for less than desirable news.

"Early indications are a 70 percent reduction from last year for the western half of North Dakota," said Aaron Robinson, upland game biologist stationed in Dickinson. "It looks like sharptails got hammered in the western part of the state. We won't finish our brood counts until August 31st, but early indications are there was not good production anywhere."

Survey numbers come from Game and Fish personnel who conduct early morning roadside counts of pheasant, grouse and partridge broods. A number of factors can affect the survey, including tall vegetation that can limit visibility and late season nesting. However, the trend this summer is not considered very encouraging.

"I haven't been seeing very much at all. It has me a little nervous," said Stan Kohn, upland game biologist in Bismarck. "I'm seeing adult hen pheasants with small broods or none at all. That's not what we should be seeing at this time of year. The preliminary stuff can be a little nerve-wracking. Maybe late August will be a little better but it usually doesn't change much."

Reasons for low production of upland game birds range from a lack of healthy birds coming off a wicked winter to cool and wet weather during the nesting and rearing season. Some parts of the state even had snow in early June. right at the time when many upland game birds were on the nest. Some speculate that this year's cooler than normal temperatures have thrown off the life cycles of bugs, necessary items for the diet of young pheasants, grouse and partridge.

"Maybe the adult hens were roughed up more than what we thought during the winter. Maybe the hen mortality is higher than expected," said Kohn.

If more and larger broods don't begin to show up in later this month, it means that hunters will have fewer and older birds to pursue this fall. Proposed season limits, which are unchanged from last year, are awaiting the governor's approval. Last year's limit was three birds daily for sharptailed grouse, grey partridge and pheasants.

Continued limited numbers of sage grouse in the southwestern portion of the state has resulted in the closure of the sage grouse season for the second consecutive year. Sage grouse are the state's largest upland game bird and are better equipped to handle tough winters. Their numbers are believed to have been reduced by habitat loss and mosquito-born West Nile virus.

"We've been declining steadily for, basically, the last 10 years. We're not abnormal," explained Robinson. "We're consistent with what's been happening range-wide for sage grouse. The alarming thing is that we're on the very eastern edge of their range and our habitat is very poor compared to elsewhere. Sustaining what we have is an uphill battle."

The number of adult sage grouse counted on booming grounds this past spring numbered just 69 birds as compared to 77 in 2008. Biologists say reopening of the special 3-day hunting season will be considered again when, and if, the adult population of sage grouse reaches 100 birds. A problem though, is that sage grouse do not reproduce in big numbers like other upland game species.

"They are long-lived. Most upland game birds are not long-lived and have a high reproduction capability as a compensation," said Robinson. "Sage grouse have low reproduction with clutches of 4 to 8 chicks as compared to 15 to 20 for a pheasant. Sage grouse are completely dependent on a certain habitat type and there's not much you can do to rebound a population."

A numbers decline is also occurring in the state's limited prairie chicken range in eastern North Dakota. According to a release from Game and Fish, fewer prairie chicken licenses are available this fall. While the number of licenses in the special north unit near Grand Forks will remain at 50, the south unit east of Lisbon has seen a reduction to 30 licenses.

Hunters wishing to apply for special prairie chicken permits need to send a postcard addressed to Prairie Chicken Application, NDG&F, 100 N. Bismarck Expressway, Bismarck, N.D. 58501. Applications must be postmarked by August 12.