Like I said, it’s not habitat. Ninety years ago in my part of the world there was a house every forty acres and everything was planted in cotton and corn. Quail were about the only game besides rabbits and squirrels that were around back then. Sixty years ago the cotton and corn was gone but there were pastures everywhere and lots of quail. Forty to fifty years ago, clearcuts became the vogue and quail, like everything else, EXPLODED. You couldn’t walk fifty yards in some places without kicking up a covey or two.
Today, fewer cattle operations. More grown up fields. Still lots of clearcuts and pine plantations in various stages. Lots of unmowed road ditches and NO row crops of any kind. Aaaaand I haven’t even heard a quail in probably at least 15 years. It might be twenty, but I know it’s been fifteen.
