Texas Panhandle Pheasant Hunt

Came across some photos from a hunt I did for my family from Dumas, Arkansas. These were from sometime in the mid to late 90s. They did the long drive from Dumas to Lubbock and we managed to get them on some birds. Great time was had by all!

Looks like a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas to me.

Got my "Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas" pin on my pheasant vest as I used to hunt between Dumas and Channing plus I'm from Lubbock. Will be glad when wild pheasant return to the panhandle.

I hope the Texas Panhandle wheat is tall and green this spring after all the rain that came down up there over the last month. I hope somebody can give us a report.

In west and southwest Kansas, I heard that 70% of the pheasant hens hatch their eggs in winter wheat, when the wheat crop is green and healthy.

The rain have to be helping the quail and pheasants up their with green vegetation for food and nesting cover and more fat insects.

Wheat all around the Panhandle is very tall and very green!!! No difference from irrigated(which is not needed) to dry land. Things are looking on the positive side, just hope we can keep it up but no flood out any chicks.

SilverDogs, thanks for the update. In dry years like 2011, 2012 and 2013 the wheat does not provide a lot of nesting cover.

But in moisture loaded El Nino years (like now) the tall green wheat provides excellent nesting cover, brooding cover for chicks and plenty of insects.

It is very hard for a predator to find a setting hen pheasant in such a vast ocean of tall green wheat. Now the task is to get a hatch off before the wheat is cut. Most of the chicks should hatch well before the wheat is cut.

In the past strong El Nino years like 1982-1983, 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 the fall quail and pheasant numbers were very high. Lets see what happens.

in S.W. Ks. wasn't unusual to combine over hen's on nest, that was before the CRP.

Things are going great here at Spearman, almost 11" of SLOW rain in the last 30 days and the wheat and other cover are almost perfect. After the past few years it seems like we are seeing and hearing pheasant everywhere. All the playa lakes are full and if things hold on we might get a good sandhill season in addition to almost having a normal pheasant population.