By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Opening Day of pheasant and quail season typically means cooler weather in Kansas. That was not the case Saturday with highs in the 60s for much of the state. Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Manager Jason Wagner spent some time in Western Kansas over the weekend and was able to ask many hunters and biologists about bird numbers this year.
"It was a very wide range of answers," he said. "I'd say the vast majority of information is that it wasn't very good. There were quite a few hunters. They were finding a few birds here and there. The ones I talked to locally, again there wasn't much shining going on for at least the pheasants."
Quail numbers were a little better than pheasant numbers. Last October, pheasant counts were down around 19 percent across the state from a year earlier. Wagner said another dry year did not help numbers this year.
"I'm betting after last year's drought the bird numbers are fairly low still and the habitat is really good," he said, "which makes for even tougher conditions."
Pheasant numbers can take a few years to rebound. A wet 2019 season drove many of the birds away from Cheyenne Bottoms. The dry nesting conditions of today may lead to more pheasants in the future.