xbred
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does anyone have wild quail any more?...seems like they have all vanished from this area...
quail
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Mahoney Pursley Ranch
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Heard a few Bobwhites about three years ago but none since. They say the fireants here are responsible for the quail vanishing.
Crowderfarms
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We should have a lot more Quail here, but thanks to habitat being shrunk by Sub-Divisions the numbers are down. Not to mention stray Cats, Hawks, Owls,Coyotes and Hunters that shoot over their limits.
Yes, I think that fire ants take their share. I have to watch it when chicks hatch because they will crawl into the shell as it comes out and attack the chick. I have seen the poor things still alive, eyes eaten out.
hillrancher
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No quail here and haven't for 25+ years. The excuse is fescue they starve on it. I don't believe it because of cover there is more cover than there was 12 or so years ago.
We see a pair or so every year but never a increase.
We see a pair or so every year but never a increase.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Crowderfarms":2q8dr401 said:
Have a few keep a game feeder with hen scratch in it for them. We have had fireants for the last fifty years here and still had quail. Yes they take there toll and still have quail. I have noticed the population decline in the last ten years as feral cat numbers have gone up. It is not unusal to see a feral cat every deer hunting trip.
Caustic Burno":34dfgzdm said:
We used to see a lot of feral cats when out pheasant hunting, they respond well to a 16ga loaded with 1 1/8 oz of # 6 shot, or a 17HMR. Don't see as many as we used too.
Fire ants are partly to blame, but as with most declining species, loss of habitat is the primary cause. Change of agricultural land use from row cropping to pasture and forestry has been detrimental to quail. Quail prefer open fields without a thick covering of grass. Thinning pine plantations and performing prescribed burns is beneficial to them. Quail are few and far between in my area that is dominated by mixed oak, pine, hickory timberland.
oscar p
Well-known member
When I bought this farm,It had 1 good covey, seemed like every year it got smaller and smaller.Haven't seen or heard them in,this makes the second year.
hillrancher":3m1996k4 said:
The problem with fescue is the lack of open dirt. But it would be the same problem with any sod forming grass. We bought this farm 5 years ago and would occasioanlly hear a quail. Since we've done some habitat improvement, eliminated fescue in some places, planted WSG and rotationally graze, we now have 3 coveys.
Had the same kind of results at the other farm when we started rotational grazing and did some habitat improvments
cattleluvr18
Well-known member
we have more quail than pheasents it seems
stocky
Well-known member
We used to have from 50-70 different coveys on our farms in any given year and same with all the neighbors. My Dad and then myself hunted quail all our lives. If you didnt get up 15 coveys in a day, you hadnt had a very good day. Now, there might be a half dozen coveys. We used to have lespedeza and sage grass. Now we have fescue. We used to put out 100 acres of cane every year for the cows to winter on. Terrible cow feed, but it kept them alive and it was great for quail. Now no one kills the raccoons and other varmints so they destroy quail nests. We have lots of turkeys and the conservation dept says they eat the quail eggs and kill the chicks. There are feral cats everywhere and bobcats have gotten thick. Lots of farms were busted up and turned into houses. We have had bad droughts which reduced the cover. Used to, everyone would kill every hawk they saw. Now almost no one kills them and they make it hard on quail with the droughts we have had that thinned the cover. It has been several years since I have shot into a covey of quail. I love to eat them, but there are so few, I hate to kill one. If there are 5 or 6 coveys on 40 acres and the majority of birds in a covey get killed, the others will mix in with another covey. If there is one covey on 40 acres, and something kills most of them, there is no covey for them to join. The conservation department claims it takes a minimum of 5 birds to covey up to stay warm and not freeze and die, I am sure it is more in colder climates than here.
Parkerson Cattle Co.
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Introduced species........... ring neck dove, competitor....one of many problems
Parkerson Cattle Co.":38itdbjd said:
Are they ring necked doves or the eurasian collared doves. We have the collared doves they moved in here 3 or 4 yrs ago. they don't seem to compete for much except feed if it's on the ground they nest in pine trees here. However I have seen a large flock of them in Kansas this year wintering in a shelter belt right by where we found a large covey of quail.
Parkerson Cattle Co.
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heck collared... i get them confused... ring neck too maybe not to sure, but i know one of the two is a competitor.....
TexasBred
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Central Texas has a lot of what locals call "ring neck doves". Regular colored dove with a black ring around the neck. Get dern near as big as a pigeon and no limit on how many you can kill per day.
Parkerson Cattle Co.
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thats the ones I'm talking about... i call them a ring neck, reason why they are open season year round, no limit is because they are an invasive, and a competitor to the quail... If i'm remembering right. Big problem all over the state. they are fun to run over though, because they don't move.... Dang invasives....
Parkerson Cattle Co.":o0cwj3n3 said:
That's the Eurasian collared dove. I saw them the first time in Florida 10 years ago. The made it to Colo in about 6 yrs. They don't migrate like mourning doves they winter over around here in pine trees. Same here as far a season or limit. There are worse pests out there , at least these are edible. The other good news is they fly slower than mourning doves, and I can hit them easier. We don't have enough yet to really hunt them but it won't be long.
Horticattleman
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I read in a conservationist magazine that one year hail storms had decimated the quail populations.
