Took the interstate from Sioux Falls to Rapid City early yesterday morning to retrieve my daughter from Mines. That goes through a couple areas that were extremely hard hit with snow. Saw many roosters. Some were batchin' it, but most were with 1-4 hens. For as many as I saw, how many did I NOT see that were also nearby? 5x? 20x? There's no doubt more pheasants succumbed to winter than usual, but I really believe more survived than a lot of people think. Fingers crossed for a productive spring.
I also saw well over 100 antelope. I almost always see quite a few driving to Rapid & back. According to the internet, there are probably 30k-75k antelope in the state. How can there be so few, yet I always feel like I see quite a few just driving across SD on the interstate? Doesn't add up, unless they all live near the interstate, which seems unlikely.?