I'm headed to Kansas to hunt the 1st weekend of the season there. In 2010 I went and tagged out on the 1st full day of the hunt. Birds were everywhere. I know numbers have been down in SE Kansas but what about the areas around Newton, Whitewater, and Mcpherson? Those are the areas that I normally hunt.
I never even made it to Kansas last year, the first time in close to 20 years, due to my having a mowing business. I used to hunt in SE Kansas exclusively, but the last few years, the bird population went to almost nothing. A couple of years of extreme flooding in the spring really took its toll.
That said, I'm not personally familiar with the areas you are talking about, but I believe those towns are north of Wichita, and it has been my understanding that basically any area north of I-35 was not adversely effected by the flooding, so you should be OK.
I'd recommend contacting Jared McJunkin, the NWTF biologist over Kansas. He's a great guy, and always happy to help. Neill