Can't figure out what the drought did to affect the hatch. There were at least some insects around all summer, so I don't see how they would have "starved to death." We didn't have any bad storms that would have killed them. We did have early spring rains that caused good grass growth and there are plenty of weeds around, so they should have had decent nesting cover.
The other odd thing is that we are still seeing very young birds out there--as in little ones that can barely fly off the ground, so they must have been hatched only two months ago. Since pheasants don't double-hatch, it means that the early nesting birds were unsuccessful for the entire early summer. That makes no sense.
Anyway, if we don't keep on having a mild fall and early winter, those little birds won't make it once the cold weather hits hard.
