Talked with one of the Game and Fish biologists yesterday. The mearns population didn't reproduce well this year. We had a August and September which is critical to nesting as well as the survival of any young that were hatched. Consequently the number of young found is well below average. Covey size and numbers of coveys found is well below average. Quote: "check stations in the Sonoita area to verify our wing barrel sampling. Of the 29 hunters we checked, there were 31 birds harvested. " This type of crash of the population will have anyone that goes out taking their dogs and shotgun for a walk.



The best thing all of us can do is leave them alone and go after gambels or scaled quail. Gambel's population is up slightly up this year.

"We had a August and September which is critical to nesting as well as the survival of any young that were hatched."

What happened in late summer/early fall?

As I recall, Mearns quail rely on summer monsoon rain. We really didn’t have those summer monsoon rains this past summer.

Copy. We finally got some here last year.

Most experts say the monsoon initiates the breeding of mearns.

There are not many studies on mearns. But one thing is certain, over grazing plays a large part in the success of the survival of young mearns. Sufficient ground cover is essential to mearns to prevent raptors from killing them. The dry conditions in mearns country caused poor grass growth this summer. I am sure this is a big factor in the low numbers.

I also believe that some rain through the fall and winter helps keep soil softer for them to dig up their tubers and bulbs as well as keep the food source healthy. Conversely a deep freeze like we had several years ago kept the ground frozen for well over a week and we had a huge dieoff.