Quail

[poorhunter]

I'm in general agreement with you poorhunter, but want to elaborate a bit on your thoughts.


I disagree a little about the predators.
I believe over the decades, not only have quail predators increased, but they have evolved in becoming more efficient at killing quail. To some extent, I believe they evolved to hunt turkeys, particularly young turkeys, DURING DAYTIME, and inadvertently also became more efficient at stumbling into quail.

I'm talking mainly about coyotes & bobcats above. When I was young, areas with lots of quail in Tennessee had very few bobcats and zero coyotes. As bobcat & coyote populations exploded, it was many years, perhaps decades, before they are regularly observed hunting in mid-day. What are they hunting? I believe it's mainly turkeys. But in their daytime pursuit of young turkeys, they stumble into more quail (than they did when they were more nocturnal predators).

Now, yes, the hawks have always only hunted during daytime.
What's changed is that we've had a steady "continual" increase in the sheer number of hawks. Again, when I was young, they were low in numbers, and most were shot on sight if they came around a farmhouse.

Today, we must have somewhere between 10x and 100x more hawks in West TN than going back over 50 years ago when quail were abundant. This raptor increase has been every bit as "continual" over the decades as has the decrease in quail.

When we were kids we killed all the hawks we could as well as other predators like skunks, opossums and raccoons. Every kid had a .22 and was proficient at killing predators.

On the opposite end of the scale, my dad grew up in North Dakota and he would make a dime as kid destroying pheasant nests and eggs for farmers!

 

[fairchaser]

I hear them and see them quite frequently on Ames Plantation due to their habitat and restocking efforts for field trials. It's a nice reminder of the good ole days when I was a boy and quail were common in most places in Tennessee. The only time I curse them under my breath is when I flush a covey trying to sneak into my stand at daylight. But then I can hear them all morning reconnecting with their characteristic bob, bobwhite yodels.

 

[Mattt]

lbl I totally agree about fescue grass. And also he other factors. I have no idea why hawks are still protected. When I put birds out here over the course of about two weeks the red tails will hang around sometimes 8-9 sitting around looking for birds. Coons, yotes crap the little birds don't stand a chance. As far as the west, they have upward and downward trends they're not in overall decline. The whistle counts that are done in nw Missouri and Kansas tell the story better. Texas started something g like that a few years back but I didn't keep up with it. Kansas spends some money on this and their data is available. Pretty easy to follow the population trends and look at weather factors and habitat loss as they include crp enrollment with their numbers. When crp is up and spring is relatively dry the populations boom.

 

[tellico4x4]

Saw a pair day before yesterday in thinned pines. First time in 20 yrs to that I've seen them on that part of land.Maybe the thinning was good for them!

 

[MickThompson]

Saw a pair day before yesterday in thinned pines. First time in 20 yrs to that I've seen them on that part of land.Maybe the thinning was good for them!

The only thing better than thinning is more thinning

 

[tellico4x4]

Saw a new covey on our place a couple days ago, 10-12 birds!! Pines were thinned & 5th rowed two yrs ago & have a large clover plot that butts up to them. Birds were right on the edge where you'd expect, excited to see!