http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

v 2.4.3.0

Fewer upland birds were brought to the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Havre check station for the 2019 hunting season as lingering impacts from the 2017 drought continued to be felt. For the eight weekends the check station was open from Oct. 12 through Dec. 1, the pheasant harvest of 501 birds was above 2018 at 18 percent, but 37 percent lower than the long-term average. The sharp-tailed grouse harvest of 63 birds was above the 2018 total, but about half of the long-term average. The Hungarian partridge harvest of 19 birds was equivalent to the 2018 total, but was well below the long-term average. Scott Hemmer, a biologist in the Havre area and manager of the station stated, “The continued lower upland bird numbers is likely due to the impact of drought conditions in the summer of 2017 along with the hard winter of 2017-18. However, pheasant production seemed better this year with 81% of the harvest consisting of juvenile birds.” Helena Independent Record (Mont.), Dec. 6, 2019 Drought reduced pheasant, grouse and Hungarian partridge harvest counts to about 50 percent across the board, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Havre-area biologist Scott Hemmer. Sharp-tailed were down 58 percent in the long term, while Hungarian pheasants were down 52 percent. He felt that the drought conditions hurt the survival of the young birds. Havre Daily News (Mont.), Nov. 4, 2017