SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO-AM) Hunters from all over have been flying into Sioux Falls Regional Airport for South Dakota's world-renowned pheasant season which opens this weekend.
Many of them have been coming back each year for decades.
"It's got pheasants, obviously, but also a lot of really nice people," said a hunter from Virginia explaining why he's been coming to South Dakota for 20 years.
Amen to that from another 20 year man from Michigan.
"The people in South Dakota are the friendliest people anywhere in the U.S. The pheasants are wily and a riot to hunt," he said at Friday's annual Pheasant Fly-in at the airport hosted by the Sioux Falls Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The Bureau's Jessie Schmidt said it's a real family affair at the airport, passing out coffee mugs to hunters you've welcomed for years.
"We have gentlemen who come down that people mover and say 'what kind of mug do we get this year, I got'em all on a shelf in my office'," said Schmidt.
South Dakota's estimated pheasant population is down this season, but that follows two years of substantial increases. The constant challenge is to find the right balance between cropland for farmers and grassland habitat for pheasants.
The State of South Dakota has a website, South Dakota Habitat Pays, to connect farmers and ranchers to resources to help them implement wildlife habitat where it makes the most sense:
The South Dakota pheasant hunting season runs from October 15 to January 1.