Outdoors: 2018 Upland Game Bird Region 6 Outlook

By Montana FWP

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 6 biologists have been compiling data about upland bird numbers in the area. Biologists conduct spring surveys to determine trends of adult numbers, including lek counts for sharp-tailed and sage grouse, and crowing counts for pheasants. These surveys provide a general idea of adult numbers in those respective survey areas compared to other years and long-term averages.

Although spring numbers provide an estimate of the breeding populations heading into nesting season, weather, habitat conditions, and disease during the spring and summer have a big impact on fall hunting potential, as younger birds are typically the ones harvested.

Incidental observations of mid-to-late-summer broods for pheasants, sharp-tails, sage grouse and huns look promising; however, biologists do not currently have regionwide brood-rearing success data for all species.

Across the region, above average snowfall throughout the winter along with spring rains greatly helped to produce good nesting and brood-rearing cover. These habitat conditions should be conducive to better production this year, but hunters must keep in mind that all populations will be recovering from the drought of 2017. Hunters should also be aware that habitat conditions in certain areas across the region still show impacts from the drought. Additionally, CRP acreage continues to decline across the Hi-Line. Locating areas of good habitat will be the key to locating birds this fall, and hunting should be fair or slightly better than 2017.

Pheasants

Pheasant adult numbers, according to spring crowing counts, show quite a bit of variability across the region. The west end of the region, including Hill, Blaine, and a portion of Chouteau counties, indicate numbers at 40-50 percent below long-term average, or LTA, in those areas. Phillips County is above LTA, while Valley and McCone counties are 10-24 percent below. The northeast corner, including Daniels, Sheridan, Roosevelt and portions of Richland and Dawson counties, indicate numbers at average to 10 percent below average.

Pheasant distribution will vary across portions of each county, and most birds will be found in optimal habitat including river-bottoms, riparian areas and other moist areas that produce adequate cover.

Sharp-tailed grouse

Sharp-tailed grouse adult numbers are 25-40 percent below the LTA across the region where surveys are conducted. Sharp-tailed grouse distribution may vary dramatically across the region, and the greatest numbers will be found in optimal habitat.Sage grouse

Sage grouse lek counts indicate 10-24 percent below LTA in the western portion of the region, including Hill, Blaine, Phillips, and a portion of Choteau counties. Both Valley and McCone counties indicate numbers that are above LTA. There are no formal surveys of sage grouse in the northeast corner of the region, as numbers are historically very low because of inadequate habitat.

Core sage grouse habitat primarily exists south of U.S. Highway 2 in mixed grass and Wyoming big sagebrush rangeland. Birds will be distributed sparsely across the expanses of sage brush, but may concentrate in certain areas.

Hungarian partridge

There are no formal surveys conducted for Hungarian, or gray, partridge within Region 6. Partridge populations are always "spotty" across the region. Based on incidental observations, partridge populations saw similar decreases to pheasants and sharp-tailed grouse last year. However, the good nesting and brood-rearing conditions should help them recover similarly to the other species. In good habitats the outlook for huns is fair this year, but hunters may need to cover a lot of ground to find habitats favored by the species.

Improving Upland Game Bird Habitat and Access

To improve habitat for upland game birds, landowners can apply to enroll in a variety of cost-share programs under the Upland Game Bird Habitat Enhancement Program to develop, enhance and conserve Montana's upland game bird habitats. Part of the agreements for these programs is that the land in the project area remains open to reasonable public hunting. Generally, up to 75 percent of the cost of the landowner's UGBHEP project can be reimbursed.

One of the UGBHEP options to secure habitat and provide hunting opportunity is the Open Fields program. Open Fields started in 2012 and is a grant program that combines Farm Bill funds with state hunting license dollars. The program works with landowners to manage CRP in a wildlife-friendly way that provides important cover for Montana's game birds. Conservation-incentive programs like Open Fields are geared to help landowners keep some land enrolled in CRP and to provide public game bird hunting opportunities.

Open Fields enrollment in Region 6 has been very successful this year. For the 2018 season, the program added 21 contracts totaling over 8,000 acres across the region, including 4,606 CRP acres and 3,484 additional acres of access. Thirteen of these contracts are in the northeast corner, six are near Havre and two are near Hinsdale and Saco. Combined with previous enrollments, the program now offers about 39,000 acres of conserved habitat and access to bird hunters in Region 6.

Interested hunters can find the locations of Open Fields and other UGBHEP projects in the annual Montana Upland Game Bird Guide Enhancement Program Access or through the "hunt planner" on the FWP website.

In addition, the Block Management Access guides, which recently arrived at FWP offices, are another great resource to find places to hunt for upland birds.