Quail

[Scrounger]

Help, Deputy Al, I'm surrounded by quail. I counted 40 of them in my back yard yesterday. Do you think a silencer would work on a Marlin .44 Mag with shot shells? Just kidding, actually, I'm putting out breadcrumbs for them. Moma hens with lots of unbelievably tiny chicks.

[45 2.1]

That must be a sight, I don't get to see any until they're half grown. Saw a baby fawn in a wheat field yesterday, wobbly legged and not much bigger than a big beagle.

[StarMetal]

Bob,

Alot of times I'll be shooting at my 100 yard target on my range and a doe, with her fawn, will come out and lay about 25 yards off to the side of my target and watch me shoot, which by then I had stopped and runned them off for fear of a ricochet or something. It's nice to see them, but I wouldn't want any harm coming to them from my shooting. We have a pretty neat looking young bear running around the area. One neighbor took some pictures of him. He has a unique brown muzzle, instead of brown all the way around his snout, it's an inverted V design of brown.

Joe

[carpetman]

Starmetal---The doe and fawn that come watch you shoot(they are in awe I might add)is a training session for the fawn. The doe is teaching the young to stay atleast 3,000 yards from you during season or with ONE shot will be dead,skinned,quartered and butchered before they hit the ground---that's with .22 rimfire,if you have larger gun,the distance is increased drastically.

[StarMetal]

Catpetman

You're lucking you can see 30 yards in these thick mountain forest, alone 3000 yards.

Joe

[NVcurmudgeon]

We have lots of California, or Valley, Quail. We see hundreds every day, especially early and late. About once a week a proud pair of quail will parade up to ten little ones through our inner back yard. The baby quail are about the size of grown House Finches or English Sparrows, but if you spook them, they'll fly, sometimes as far as twenty feet to the closest bush or weed patch. We also have cottontail rabbits raising a family under our back deck. The little rabbits are seriously cute, and very quick. They don't freeze as grown cottontails do. SWMBO has ordered that I may not hunt quail or cottontails. That's OK, I'm not much of a bird hunter anyway. She doesn't mind big game as they arrive wrapped and frozen.

[C1PNR]

I seriously miss seeing the quail families in our yard, or perched along the roof line.

Before our area of town got so built up we frequently had quail hanging around. Even had a scared to death doe in our back yard one snowy winters day.:)

Now all we have are the neighborhood cats and some really quick tree squirrels.;-)

[carpetman]

C1PNR---Have you considered that the absence of quail and the presence of cats might have a direct relationship? You no longer have quail,so those darling cats might be facing a most agonizing death by quail deficiency syndrome(QDS). It's not the cat's fault that it is their nature to kill every quail they can,whether for fun or food. Heck that's their right. You CAN prevent their QDS demise, but it is very expensive. You will have to buy quail daily---very expensive. If not, the symptoms the poor cat goes through with QDS are too numerous to list. Now I'm sure you wouldn't want this to happen. So what you do,is you set a trap large enough for a cat to enter. Bait it with cat food. Most folks don't know quail love cat food. What you are trying to do is glean any surviving quail from the area to feed the cats. Now if you happen to catch a cat,but not a quail--that proves that the onset of QDS has occurred. Once contacted,there is no cure and to prevent an epidemic the cat should be humanely disposed of. Not to worry--they have 9 lives,so maybe in the other 8,they wont face the dreaded QDS. You have done a big service to not only the cats but for cat lovers. You may have prevented their darling Tabby from catching this dreaded disease. Besides trapping them,if you see any cats without a quail in their mouth you can be assured they too have QDS and should be shot immediately. If they have quail in their mouth,you know they have the disease and in a great act of pain and desperation--caught the quail. Do your part in stamping out QDS. It takes some work,but it is very rewarding knowing you have made such a useful contribution for the preservation of cats.

[Scrounger]

C1PNR---Have you considered that the absence of quail and the presence of cats might have a direct relationship? You no longer have quail,so those darling cats might be facing a most agonizing death by quail deficiency syndrome(QDS). It's not the cat's fault that it is their nature to kill every quail they can,whether for fun or food. Heck that's their right. You CAN prevent their QDS demise, but it is very expensive. You will have to buy quail daily---very expensive. If not, the symptoms the poor cat goes through with QDS are too numerous to list. Now I'm sure you wouldn't want this to happen. So what you do,is you set a trap large enough for a cat to enter. Bait it with cat food. Most folks don't know quail love cat food. What you are trying to do is glean any surviving quail from the area to feed the cats. Now if you happen to catch a cat,but not a quail--that proves that the onset of QDS has occurred. Once contacted,there is no cure and to prevent an epidemic the cat should be humanely disposed of. Not to worry--they have 9 lives,so maybe in the other 8,they wont face the dreaded QDS. You have done a big service to not only the cats but for cat lovers. You may have prevented their darling Tabby from catching this dreaded disease. Besides trapping them,if you see any cats without a quail in their mouth you can be assured they too have QDS and should be shot immediately. If they have quail in their mouth,you know they have the disease and in a great act of pain and desperation--caught the quail. Do your part in stamping out QDS. It takes some work,but it is very rewarding knowing you have made such a useful contribution for the preservation of cats.

Or you could hire the old cat killer hisself to come in and exterminate all the cats. Yeah, sure.