HILL CITY ? Bird hunting last year in Kansas was as poor as it’s been in 30 years.

And all indicators suggest quail and pheasant hunters won’t do any better this year.

“With good conscience I couldn’t recommend that anyone go hunting in the western quarter of Kansas this year,” said Randy Rogers, Kansas Fish and Game biologist in Hays. “And even farther east our area manager in Cedar Bluff says he’s not seeing anywhere near the birds he saw last year, and they were better off last year than a lot of other counties.”

It’s another effect of the drought that has gripped western Kansas for the past few years. And for areas that depend on revenue from hordes of hunters that annually descend on their grasslands to pursue upland game, it’s adding insult to injury.

Pheasants like to nest in green wheat and grasses. The drought slowed development of winter wheat, eliminating potential nesting areas. Over the years, farmers and ranchers have returned their pastures to native grasses that made excellent nesting.

But the dry weather changed that, too. Emergency pasture rights were returned to the owners who are cutting them for hay or using them to graze cattle.

You don’t have to tell Mary Worcester the pheasant population isn’t what it used to be. But she isn’t sure the problem is entirely driven by drought.

The business impact

She and her husband, Tom, have run the Pomeroy Inn, an 1884 bed and breakfast on Hill City’s Main Street, the past 15 years. When there are a lot of birds, there are a lot of hunters, and hunters need a place to sleep.

“We’ve had so many birds for so many years, I think we just hunt them too hard,” Mary said.

The Pomeroy Inn is a regular morning stop for local farmers who rave about Mary’s coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls.

“The farmers say it’s the owls and hawks who are getting the pheasants, but I think it’s the bobcats … I have seen some on my way to my son’s farm,” she said.

The Worcesters say they might sell their bed and breakfast.

“We still have guests on alumni weekends and weddings and the rodeo, but we’re not getting any younger, and we do think seriously about it,” Mary said, stealing a glance at her husband.

Pheasants have a high profile in Hill City. The high school athletic teams are called the Ringnecks. Drawings of ringneck pheasants adorn the sign in front of the police station and are part of the stone welcome signs on the edge of town.

Selling guns

Up on the east end of Hill City, Jim McVey, 79, said some people had “decent luck” last year hunting pheasant. McVey runs a gun shop out of an old gas station.

“This was a busy place last year,” he said as he showed off some of his handguns. “But I didn’t count the birds.”

The bird hunters favor certain shotguns.

“The 1100 Remington, $350,” McVey said pointing to one in the corner. “Now the big money goes for the over-and-under Browning  two perfect shots. But for $1,000 to $1,500, you gotta love to hunt to buy one of these.”

East down Highway 18 there is water in the ponds. But in Plainville, weeds growing around a dozen or so push mowers outside the New Holland store indicated local lawns weren’t growing as fast as the dealer would like.

There’s at least one western Kansas tradition that hasn’t been lessened by drought.

At some point between Lawrence and the Colorado line, off the interstate, drivers in oncoming vehicles begin waving. It’s not a big, arm swinging “hey-look-over-here” wave. It’s subtle. Even women wave. Most don’t even take their hands off the steering wheel. Drivers lift only one or two fingers as they look straight through your windshield, right in your eye.

God’s punishment?

The drought has hit western Kansas hard and it will take lots of rain to make things right. Ray Whitmer, at the Haskell County Farm Bureau, said it would take a foot of water just to get moisture to the dry subsoil.

The dryness hasn’t just hurt pocketbooks. Some western Kansans are convinced God is punishing them.

Joanna Grimshaw, a Lutheran minister living in Goodland with parishes in Westkan and Sharon Springs, said some parishioners and others told her they believed rain was being prevented as punishment to farmers and ranchers who had disobeyed God.

She has a ready answer when she hears that.

She said she reminded them that in Matthew it says, “for (your father) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”