Wildlife and Parks ? As forecast by Wildlife and Parks, the opening weekend of the Kansas upland bird season proved to be a boon for hunters.

While check stations that offer a concrete indication of hunter success were not conducted statewide, field staffers reported that hunter satisfaction was the highest in several years.

Most reported hunting activity focused on pheasants although some quail hunters, particularly in the southcentral part of the state, reported good numbers of birds.

Quail hunters in northcentral Kansas had good hunting, too.

In northwest Kansas, the take was spotty, but hunters reported seeing fair numbers of birds.

“Hunters were seeing lots of birds in some areas, but they were flushing far ahead of them,” state biologist Randy Rodgers said. “The big factor here, as in much of the state, is large fields of uncut milo. Pheasants stay in these fields and just run like crazy. But this bodes well for later, I think, after the milo is cut.”

In the drought stricken far western counties, hunting was poor, as predicted.

In the northcentral, hunters did quite well hunting pheasants, in addition to the good numbers of quail. Hunting was slow in the northeast, as predicted, although hunters in the western counties of that region — Clay, Dickinson, and Washington — had better luck.

In the southwest, hunters did “really well,” according to Rodgers, and were quite happy with the hunting. One group of 11 hunters reported seeing about 200 pheasants Saturday alone, mostly in standing milo.

KDWP staff conducted a check station in southcentral Kansas, near Kingman. They checked 672 hunters who had 1,233 pheasants and 164 quail.

In the southeast, where there are no pheasants, hunting was slow. In this region, many hunters go west for pheasants on opening weekend, but regional staff reported a slight increase in hunting activity although pressure was still light. Quail numbers in this region remain low.

As weather turns colder and crops are cut, winter upland bird hunting should improve. And if the state experiences a few snowstorms, hunters may look forward to some of the best holiday hunting in years.