By Nick Simonson

A strong recruitment year in 2023 helped sharptailed grouse and Hungarian partridge in North Dakota rebuild after a tough winter, and a milder cold-weather season in 2024 brought bigger numbers of birds into spring. However, the cooler, damp conditions in late spring and early summer likely hampered recruitment for the upland birds this season, according to agents of the North Dakota Game & Fish Department’s (NDG&F) Upland Game Section.

Sharpies Slip on Cool Late Spring

“With sharptails, we were looking really good this spring. Most of our areas saw increases when we were out counting the males dancing on their dancing grounds.  The state was up 51 percent and strongest in the southwest where it was over a 70 percent increase from 2023, probably due partially to conditions. We didn’t have snow on the ground like in 2023.  So, survey conditions were probably more ideal,” explains Jesse Kolar, NDG&F Upland Game Management Supervisor.
However, in the agency’s annual roadside survey, route drivers saw fewer adult sharptails and young-of-the-year grouse with their parents.  With the typical hatch period for sharpies falling in the month of June, it was likely that the native upland species suffered some losses of just-hatched chicks due to colder temperatures and extended wet conditions across the Peace Garden State during that time. 

“That late, cold, wet June really hurt them, because as it gets later that’s about when they were coming off their nests and its just not good for chick survival,” explains RJ Gross, NDG&F Upland Game Biologist, but he holds out hope for a good grouse season due to the sharpies’ nature, adding, “with grouse it’s very tough, they’re not an edge species and they’re not in those transition areas where habitat changes from one to another – pheasants and partridge they are. So, we see them more on our surveys [than grouse].”

Huns Still Near Highs

Hungarian partridge boasted the highest tally in three decades in the counts conducted by NDG&F in July and August of 2023 and are slightly off that mark heading into the fall of 2024.  The more edge-focused upland species likely suffered in the recruitment department as well, with the damp late spring and summer conditions impacting the vulnerable chicks prior to their feather growth and thermoregulatory abilities developing. Despite that, hunters should still see good numbers of coveys – just with a few less birds in each – as they begin to take the field.

“Partridge is a better highlight.  We had record partridge numbers last year and then this year saw good survival over winter. So, the start of the year was good.  These reproduction surveys show that they didn’t reproduce quite as well as the last five years; only eight chicks per brood that we observed on average.  So, covey sizes will probably be a little bit smaller, but there’s still partridge at much higher densities across most of the state, especially in the western third,” Kolar details.

The North Dakota sharptailed grouse and Hungarian partridge season kicks off on Sat. Sept. 14 and runs through Jan. 5, 2025.   The daily limit for each species is three birds, and the possession limit is 12.

Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors.

Featured Photo:  A Hungarian partridge makes its way through a pea field before harvest.  The small upland birds were off their historic highs from 2023 in this year’s roadside surveys. Simonson Photo.