Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bobwhite quail

Who else misses them? I was just reminded of it from reading a little article about a guy's dad that could get his limit on the way to work in the early 40's. They were everywhere when I was a kid in the south and now, they are nowhere.

I miss those days and hearing them in the spring.

We have a few... not many.

Doing what I can to help with their habitat (had a professional write a RX for our property and 3 adjoining).

But as he put it... EVERYTHING kills quail.

Heard some whistling at the farm today

A few here in NE Kansas. Not today, but Saturday and Sunday there was one at the end of the driveway right about 1 o'clock.

Not the least bit bothered by me being outside either.

Quite a few whistling all day around here.

Pheasants around too, more than just a few years ago.

The last time I flushed a small covey of quail, I never even raised my shotgun. I just stood and smiled as they flew away. I sure do miss the days of plentiful quail.

Fire ants are deadly on quail eggs. If they are raised in coops here the legs of the coops have to be put in water buckets or pots to keep the ants from getting in.

Yep

We’ve got s few back here. One in front yard week before last. Heard two coveys behind house. In back pasture

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.

We got em here in SW GA. But I live in plantation country so it’s a given. To hunt truly wild birds is an experience I’ll never forget. The amount the owners spend on habitat and management, on a per bird basis, is classified. You wouldn’t believe it anyway. We have, among others, Robert Woodruff’s Ichuway Plantatiion (Coca Cola’s founder), Nilo (Olin Winchester) Plantation, Nonami (Ted Turner) Plantation. Mr Woodruff had his accountant figure his annual cost per bird harvested just for kicks. It blew him away. His accountant asked him what he was going to do now that he knew how much each bird cost. He told him he wasn’t changing a thing…keep hunting.

Nothing wrong with buying a few and helping them along.

Plenty sold online.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/hoovers-hatchery-bobwhite-quail-30-baby-chicks

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.

We still have lots of turkeys in this country.

Yeah, turkeys are falling hard as well. I recall not just 10 years ago seeing 100+ flocks in the winter. They are still around and seem to be doing a little better the past 2 years, but nowhere near what they were 10 years ago.

I remember quail hunting as a kid in Nebraska. I loved kicking up the occasional 20 plus coveys and watching them land a block or so away, only to have my german shorthair pointer....point out single birds and get some shots on them. They were always better than pheasant to eat and more fun to hunt.

In the '50s they were common in northern and western Ohio, not as much as in the deep south but pretty common regardless. Now they're extinct here. And we don't have fire ants.

Same here, Bob. Probably more Turkey than quail.

We had tons of both blue or “scaled” quail and Bob whites here on the Ranch when I was a kid.

Haven’t seen a blue in years. Occasionally see a bob white.

The quail population start to decline here when we became inundated with wild hogs.

Well we don't have any wild hogs here either. But we have foxes and coyotes.

And a plethora of bobcats and hawks and raccoons and skunks and bulldozed hedgerows and weed free corn fields and a desert of fescue (here) and and….

Yep. But probably the modern practice of fence to fence crop planting and the destruction of “hedge rows” or the weedy areas for cover and food, have done more damage to quail populations than anything else. And as for as predators, the birds of prey, like hawks, probably kill more quail than other predators.

Hogs and fire ants are hell on nests, eggs, and chicks.