"By this time of year, most outdoor enthusiasts might be tempted to hang up their pheasant vests for the year. But savvy hunters and anglers know that South Dakota transforms into a dual-sport paradise in the winter months. With its world-class pheasant hunting and ice fishing opportunities, the final weeks of December and the whole month of January offer a unique chance for outdoor enthusiasts to combine these activities into one unforgettable trip." “It’s a combination of opportunity and challenge,” says Chris Hull, a lifelong South Dakotan who grew up hunting and fishing in the Glacial Lakes region of northeast South Dakota and now makes his home in Pierre where he works as a communications specialist for the state Game, Fish and Parks Department. “Not only is South Dakota the premiere pheasant hunting destination in the country, but it’s also a top-five ice fishing destination. If you like to hunt and fish, the real question is why wouldn’t you take advantage of the opportunity?” Read the full article "THE PERFECT WINTER COMBO: PHEASANT HUNTING AND ICE FISHING" at the link below. https://bit.ly/4gSpyu3 Posting on behalf of our partners in conservation Travel South Dakota Author Bio: South Dakota native Andrew Johnson lives for pheasant hunting, capturing the thrill of the chase through his gun, camera and words. Connect with him on X, Instagram, and YouTube: @DakotaPheasantHunt

Storm watch in Virginia

Pheasant Fact Friday!💡 With the first deep snow or ice storm, people start to worry about the pheasants starving. Death due to starving during inclement weather is extremely rare if they have adequate winter habitat. The worst storms last only two or three days, and pheasants are quite comfortable spending three days without feeding. Let’s say the birds have just finished breakfast when a blizzard hits with its snow and chilling winds. The birds immediately go to heavy grass cover to wait out the storm. Some people believe the pheasant, like other birds, sense the coming storm and will feed more heavily before finding cover. Once in protective cover, all the food they have eaten will be utilized in three to four hours. Then they will start using body fat to keep warm. Fat constitutes more than 13 percent of a pheasant’s January weight. This equates to 142 grams or 992 kcal of usable energy. This is enough to support a nonfeeding pheasant two to three days. If needed, muscle tissue could then be burned for warmth for another 10 days. Fortunately most blizzards do not last more than a couple days, so the birds can leave muscle tissue alone. The first blizzard is the easiest to survive, while each subsequent storm finds birds with less fat and in poorer physical condition. #pheasantsforever #pheasants #pheasantfactfriday

On The Wing Podcast Ep. 299: Will Primos on Donating Purdey Shotgun Collection to Conservation, is live. Listen now at the link below or wherever you get your podcasts. https://bit.ly/4j4H8g3 Host Bob St.Pierre visits with Will Primos near his home in Mississippi following a gathering to shoot Primos’ collection of custom-made Purdey shotguns. Primos collection, which includes .410, 28, 20, 16, and 12 gauges, will be auctioned in December 2025 with proceeds shared by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Congressional Sportsman’s Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, and National Wild Turkey Foundation. Episode Highlights: - Primos talks about how his game call business and his popular television show, “Primos TRUTH About Hunting,” both got started. - Primos also talks about his love of wingshooting, particularly his fondness for Mearns’ quail hunting in Arizona. - The donation of Primos’ Purdey shotguns is being organized by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and will be auctioned through Rock Island Auction Company in December 2025. The On The Wing Podcast is fueled by Purina Pro Plan

Several states across the country recently received huge amounts of snow and ice accompanied by frigid temps🥶 Take a look at what our Regional Representative for East Central Kansas, Mika Rezac, has to say on what this weather means for our favorite upland birds today and this spring!

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are thrilled to introduce Clay Newcomb – writer, filmmaker, mule-skinner, hound trainer, artist, conservationist and trad archer – as the keynote speaker and featured guest for the 2025 National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic celebration dinner. Passes are now available to hear Newcomb’s message at the Friday Night Upland Rally on March 7th, and attend the nation’s foremost upland hunting and conservation tradeshow coming to the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City on March 7-9. Passes are limited, get yours today at the link below. https://bit.ly/4fq78A0

Welcome to the Upland Newsroom, we hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! Some seasons have come to a close, while others are still ongoing. To wrap up 2024, please send us some of your favorite photos from the field by dropping them in the comments or messaging us on social. We will choose some to be shared in a recap of an incredible year! Other topics include: Late season upland opportunities. Our 2024 Impact Report is available now, highlighting all the incredible milestones in conservation our members, chapters, and supporters have helped achieve over this past year. You can find the latest Impact Report a pheasantsforever.org/impact Passes are available for the greatest upland event of the year, National Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic, Happening March 7th – 9th in Kansas City. You can also get passes for other events that weekend, including the 2nd annual Concert for Conservation, the Women on the Wing Brunch, and our National Banquet. We hope to see you all there! Link: pheasantfest.org

Don't miss out on the biggest concert of the year, the 2025 Concert for Conservation featuring Muscadine Bloodline, along with Chester Floyd! Passes are available now at the link below! https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Pheasant-Fest/Muscadine-Bloodline.aspx Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, in partnership with Pepper Entertainment, are proud to announce the second annual Concert for Conservation, featuring Muscadine Bloodline at the Uptown Theater on Thursday, March 6th in Kansas City, MO. Kicking off our weekend festivities ahead of National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic, all concert proceeds will benefit PF and QF’s upland conservation mission. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever's second annual Concert for Conservation is sponsored by onX Hunt , Purina Pro Plan, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., Pepper Entertainment, and Mammoth Muscadine Bloodline

Pheasant Fact Friday!💡 January is the coldest month of the year. Day and night temperatures are often colder than most home freezers. A 2 degree night with even a moderate wind of 11 mph creates a windchill of -25 degrees. How can pheasants survive such conditions? While you can wear another wool scarf or down vest, the pheasant has only the clothes it grew last July. In October it could ruffle its feathers for more insulation, but that’s not enough now. The answer to staying alive in January is food, habitat, and even when the bird was hatched last spring. Under severe winter conditions, an early hatched hen (May) can survive two days longer than a late hatched hen (July). The hen hatched in May will be larger and have more body fat on which to survive. Each pheasant must increase its energy intake to offset the increased loss of body heat, and to maintain it’s 108 degree temperature. In January the bird needs 504 kcal/day for warmth and weight gain. This mid-winter dietary requirement is equal to two McDonald’s hamburgers or three Snickers candy bars a day. This is nearly double that needed last October when ruffled feathers were sufficient for warmth. #pheasantsforever #pheasant #pheasantfactfriday

"Our ranch is in the middle of a highly trafficked antelope corridor, as they travel from northern Saskatchewan and Alberta to the grasslands of eastern Montana. We hosted a range tour in 2022 and removed the bottom wire on over 10 miles of barbed wire fence, removing “roadblocks” the antelope had experienced during prior migrations. Without Pheasants Forever, I would have never been exposed to the Rancher’s Stewardship Alliance (RSA), which I now sit on the board of. Through RSA, we found cost share to plant 700 acres of land back to a diverse grass mix with alfalfa — allowing for more grazing options in the early spring and late winter. Located alongside Woody Island Creek, the seeding provides excellent cover for upland birds and waterfowl, as well as quality forage for large game species of the region. By removing tillage from this soil biology will flourish, and our cattle will be a part of that small ecosystem." Read "STORIES FROM MONTANA’S GRASSLANDS" by Tyrel Obrecht, Rancher, Blaine County Montana, at the link below. Tyrel Obrecht, Rancher, Blaine County Montana https://pheasantsforever.org/BlogLanding/Blogs/Pheasants-Forever/Stories-From-Montana’s-Grasslands.aspx

On The Wing Podcast Ep. 298: Introducing a Puppy to Birds and Gunfire, is live. Listen now at the link below or wherever you get your podcast. https://pheasantsforever.org/BlogLanding/Blogs/Pheasants-Forever/Podcast-Ep-298-Introducing-a-Puppy-to-Birds-and-Gunfire.aspx Host Bob St.Pierre has a new 5-month old German shorthaired pointer puppy named “Winter” that has just completed a two-week training session introducing her to birds and gunfire at Dokken’s Oak Ridge Kennels. That training was completed by the kennel’s lead pro trainer, Mike Wieben, who talks about the process of first introducing a puppy to birds, which is followed by a slow and methodical introduction to gunfire. Episode Highlights: - Wieben talks about the variety of ways dog owners inadvertently create gunshy puppies through fireworks, banging pots & pans, or showing up at the trap range with a dog in a crate. - Little Winter gets a good report card for passing bird & gun introduction, but Wieben coaches St.Pierre on some homework on retrieving and reversing the “sit” command. - Thanks to SportDOG Brand and Purina Pro Plan for sponsoring this episode of On the Wing Podcast focused on bird dog training.

As we recap 2024 with our 2024 Impact Report, we also look ahead to 2025. Today only, your year-end gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000. What we raise by midnight tonight will kick off 2025’s habitat mission for pheasants, quail, and all manner of upland wildlife! You’re the reason we were able to deliver 2.42 million acres of habitat improvements across the pheasant, quail, and prairie grouse ranges this year. Here’s your chance to maximize your impact on the uplands. Don’t miss it. Donate today at the link below. https://pheasantsforever.org/donate Permanent Protection Stat: Together, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters, partners, donors and team members completed 46 fee-title land acquisition projects in 2024 encompassing nearly 15 square miles of upland habitat. That accomplishment raises the bar of the organization’s permanently protected lands to 238,860 acres since 1982. Each property is conveyed to state or federal natural resource agencies or managed in perpetuity by PF & QF as a Habitat Management Area. Building Forever Stat: Acres. Access. Action. Since its creation in 1982, PF & QF has dedicated more than $1 billion to 580,000 habitat projects benefiting 28.8 million acres. That sounds like a lot. It is. But the pressures on our precious uplands are real and ever-growing. Our work, your work, our shared work, is never done. Together we build the future – a forever filled with wild places where pheasants, quail and other upland wildlife can thrive. Will you maximize your 2024 impact by donating? **On Tuesday, December 31 we will have a One Day Match, year-end gifts will be matched up to $10,000.