Today, outside Huron, our group of 8 guns and no dogs put about a dozen roosters and as many hens in the air. A pretty poor quantity. Our landowner had spoken with a game biologist who said West Nile was responsible for the declining birds.
That's interesting. Several years back, when West Nile hit Iowa, the DNR examined a bunch of pheasants that had been bagged by hunters. They discovered that something like 20% carried West Nile antibodies. At first reading, that makes it sound as if West Nile was a real problem for the birds. But they explained that what it meant was the birds had been exposed, but they had survived the exposure in good health . . . until dying of lead poisoning.
As long as West Nile has been around, and as many pheasants as have been bagged in South Dakota--at least until this season--I'd be skeptical of any conclusion that disease is the major problem with the decline in bird numbers.
