Clay Newcomb on his podcast talks of “never trust a ground nesting bird, they’ll just break your heart”
Says his grandpa was a big time quail hunter and he’s into turkeys and watching the turkey populations fall now like his grandpa watched the quail fall.
True story. Happens pretty fast too I guess.
When my Grandad was a kid there were so many quail they shot them with 22s in the cotton rows. When my dad and his brothers were coming up they could walk a 2 mile circuit out in the hills and bust 2 dozen coveys. I haven’t seen more than 8 in a covey in over a decade. I’ve never killed a 10 bird limit of wild quail in this area in my life.
When dad was coming up the wildlife dept was working to reestablish turkeys. And by the time he was in his 20s they had huntable populations. By the time I was old enough to chase them we could kill 2 gobblers every spring. Now they’re slipping away fast and we’re down to a 1 bird limit, shorter spring season, and they took our rifle season away in the fall. I get to feeling sorry for the ones we have left and missing the days of flocks numbering over 100 in the winter, I haven’t even hunted them in 2 years hoping to leave what I can for seed.
