Anyone Else Hitting Iowa Operner this Weekend?

Heading down to hunt 2 days. Excited to see what we find. Basing our location on DNR survey reports along with first hand info from people we know. Heading far west.

We’ve been finding birds there for the past many years. It takes work and you definitely cant count on hunting memories.

We will be headed to South Central Iowa. The pheasants numbers are not real good but it sounds like the Quail are up in the area. The pheasant numbers have been trending down in our area but it showed a slight increase this year on the roadside survey. I guess time will tell.

I talked to a buddy of mine who hunts east of Mason City and he is telling me that the crowing numbers are up 60%… Now when the numbers are as low as they fell the past four years, that’s still not a big increase, he told me that the farmers that they’ve talked to have been hearing them most of the summer and now that crops are starting to come out seeing them again in the fields. Here’s hoping that the next couple of years weather helps out the great Iowa ringneck!!!

Mark

Four of us found 9 roosters over the weekend. Not very good but better than last year. It took work to get them but at least we were generally rewarded on the long walks.
Hardly saw birds. Flushed about the same number of hens and only missed 3 roosters. Saw nothing while driving from Friday to Sunday. NOTHING. No field sightings in the mornings or evenings like you normally do. Very sad still.
On the plus side all corn was out which is very odd to see. Saw FAR more deer than pheasants. Some nice bucks too.