The Quail

[Love Life]

Awhile back I posted about how happy I was that the quail were back for the spring and summer. Shortly after that my quail population disappeared. Hmmm. So I set a trap out, caught a few feral cats, and started throwing out seed again.


Well....tonight I heard the call from the front yard. Camera in hand I ran to see my favorite feathered friends. Without further wait:

[Alvarez Kelly]

LOVE it!!!

[country gent]

Mine are Barn swallows they come back every year. I think the originals and their young both return as this year Ive counted 12 on the wire. They sure keep mosqitos down, and are a joy to watch in flight.

[ph4570]

I have many quail on my property. They are fun to watch. A lookout is always posted on high ground to alert the others of danger. I am sure that saves them from my cats -- other birds are not so fortunate.

[JeffinNZ]

They flutter about at my club during shotgun events. Quite strange.

[Zim]

Very pretty. I saw my first quail this year in a dry rice paddy. Very exciting.

[41 mag fan]

No quail here again...dang it.
Just the other night i heard a bobcat barely 20yrds from me on the back deck, so I'm a betting its killed most of the quail off again.

[Rick N Bama]

There hasn't been any Quail (Bobwhites) to speak of in this area for years. I've read that it's due to the Coyotes and it's also been blamed on the use of Chicken House Litter on Pastures & Hay Fields.

Rick

[km101]

The quail population is down everywhere in the south and southwest. According to a state game biologist it is due largely to habitat loss (clearing of brushy areas for pasture) and in large part to the spread of fire ants. Since quail are ground nesting birds the fire ants can attack nesting birds.

Glad to see that your friends are back!!

[Four-Sixty]

Interesting. I was on the way to the shooting range and I saw a pair run across the road in front of me just yesterday. We had a problem with the fire ants until the smaller black ones moved in and kicked the red ones out!

[Love Life]

I love having them around, and we have a large population where I am. I do what I can about the ants, and I catch quite a feral cats per year.

41 Mag Fan- It's probably illegal, but a trap (good size one) may help.

[LuvMy1911]

Great pictures! wish there were quail in our neck of the woods

[Sensai]

I'm in the same situation. Since the cats have started mysteriously disappearing the quail have started to come back a little.

[10-x]

IMHO, there is nothing like hearing "Bobwhites" calling at dusk. Have not heard them for years. One of many things I miss from growing up in the country. I've heard bobcats, foxes ,feral cats and "yotes" have just about wiped them out in many parts of the U.S.

[Boz330]

Taking out the fence lines to allow line to line plowing is what did them in here. I have put in several fields of Prairie grass on my place which gives them cover along with the rabbits. There are some feral cats around though and since my Rot died they are not controlled. She would go out of her way to deal with a cat, other things not so much.
I keep hoping to here the Bobwhite's call but so far no luck. They are close because I have heard them within 2 miles of the farm. Hunt-able populations would be a dream come true.

Bob

[Love Life]

I woke up to their calls this morning, and had me a cup of coffee while I watched them wander around the yard. I do what I can on my little (rented) spread to give them a good habitat. They are one the things in life I very much enjoy.

[Cane_man]

favorite eating game bird

[Freightman]

use to be lots in the Texas panhandle especially the eastern part but the hogs have hurt them and the severe drought hasn't helped.

[captaint]

I grew up in Virginia. Really enjoyed hearing the quail all the time. Smelling the honeysuckle too. Just too far north now..... Mike

[Idaho Mule]

We have a good population of the "California Quail" here on our place. They are, as someone stated, quite tasty. Only trouble is they are so dang cute so kinda tough to shoot 'em. About 10 years ago when my Blue Heeler, Spud, was just a pup I was working on a bridge across our crick. Spud the pup was being all the help he could be, and when a pair of quail and their small brood of about 10 or 12 chicks wandered onto the construction site Spud decided to put the run on 'em. Well, mama and papa quail did not take kindly to some stupid blue pup chasin' them or their offspring, so they turned and began an assault. Spud could not handle the 2 adult quail that were beating him about the face and shoulders with their wings, beaks and claws so he retreated towards me. That was a bad plan because I was not very sympathetic and kind of booted him off to one side as his entarauge (or however you spell that) followed him. I had a good laugh when the quail returned about 5 minutes later, gave me the stink-eye and followed their brood off thru the brush. It took about an hour before Spud the mighty pup returned, and even then he was pretty sheepish. He don't chase quail anymore tho. JW

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

mommy!

[GOPHER SLAYER]

We have so many California quail where we now live that at times we must drive slowly thru the neighborhood and sometimes stop to let mommy and her brood cross the road. As has been pointed out they are to cute to shoot. Now if they could be taught to sound like the Bob White instead of the weird sound they do make.

[TXGunNut]

Texas quail seem to be making a modest comeback in spite of habitat loss, fireants, feral cats and hogs. I found it hard to shoot dove after bringing home and cooking a bag full of quail. I hope the comeback continues.

[GabbyM]

We have about a seven foot grass strip around our quarter mile forty acres. Where fenced used top be. We keep in in place because our land lays low sloping towards a drainage ditch. Grass strips are now raised above tillage field due to disc tossing dirt onto them every year. This miniature levy slows down water run off allowing it to soak into the ground on the neighbors side. fields are tiles to drain off excess water. Thing is I don’t encounter any game on these grass strips which I keep mowed with a bush hog a few times per year. Just a few ground hogs that I need to introduce to a boolit soon before crops grow up to conceal them once again. Last year the grass grew up higher than the hood of our Ford 8n and I still didn’t flush anything out. We have coyote and red and gray fox. Never see yotes on the farm but occasionally see them in headlights crossing a road within a few miles of the place. Damn yotes killed off the gray fox we had for a few years. I haven't shot a fox since 1971 because they are so beat down by the yotes.

Rural King in Mattoon, ILL had chicks of quail , pheasant and wild breed turkey for sale this spring. Were always sold out. Never studied it but figured I could fence some double high chicken wire pens then birds would fly out when they were large enough to make it outside the enclosure. We have a drainage ditch running past the place that runs to the Kaskaskia just short of lake Shelbyville. There is already a population of turkey within three miles down the ditch on US Gov ground which they seeded in fifteen or twenty years ago.

So what you all think? That sound like a viable plan?
AND yes I realize this would be somewhat of a canned hunt. But the young Amish boys around here wouldn't know where they came from. Nor would they care if they did know. It's just such a great charge to drop a bird from the sky when you are fourteen or so years old.

Reason for double high chicken wire is so yotes could not jump the fence. Actually have heavy gage garden wire for the bottom row. We are corn and soy beans. Plenty of grass heads and other weed seed plus bugs under the corn canopy to feed out birds over a summer. Just nothing in winter to keep them alive. We do have rabbits out the Yazoo. We let the neighbors young son have at those.