Wild Quail

Landowners gonna have to put some effort into restoring habitat.

Plenty of plantations in the Red Hills of south GA with enormous quantities of birds. But they are managed extremely intensely and I don’t know if you can even pay to hunt them. I think it’s all very exclusive, invite only plantations.

Not so much for large tracks, but for ants in your yard use Bifen. Spray your entire yard and there won't be a single ant hill for about 6 months, before they start re-encroaching around the edges.

We spray the yard every 6-8 months. but then again--there's no insects in the yard after we spray (which we are fine with).

Regarding fire ants on large tracks, there is almost no way to control it.

We recently burned out entire property (80 acres) which seemed to help some with the ants/overgrowth--but the fire dramatically increased nesting habitat. Our quail population is about as good as it was in the late 80's early 90's. I can sit on the back porch every afternoon and listen to multiple coveys whistling their heads off.

We have a few in Madison Parish, but not enough to hunt. I’ve come across a fair amount in Copiah County.

It’s really not so much the ants but rather land use and land management changes. Pretty significant thinning to achieve low basal areas and remove hardwoods, burning programs, fields w/ ragweed &c. for chicks to feed, and sometimes supplemental feeding programs (for adults) are all critical to maintaining decent numbers of birds.

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If everyone on Facebook would stop crying about controlled burns

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It's absolutly insane how scared of controlled fire the general public is in the Deep South. I can't run a fire without the local 911 getting multiple calls from folks passing by and seeing smoke.

It's pitiful

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I don’t know. I used to say that. But I’ve listened to some podcasts about this. Apparently they have plenty of fire ants in S GA in the Red Hills along with a very high population of bobwhite.

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SW Georgia was, through the early 1970s, about as good as good could get for quail hunting. Still LOADS of plantations being heavily managed to maintain habitat but many of them are doing so with semi wild birds and most of them are out of reach for anyone who is not very wealthy and connected. I have a friend whose family farms about 1000 acres in what was once the best quail habitat in North America (bob white)....that area is a shadow of what it once was because they do not manage it for quail, it is a working farm and as such they do what others do to remain competitive. Still excellent dove shooting and they still have some quail but they are quickly disappearing. The area I live in is across the state but through the early 70's if anyplace was better it was SW Georgia...we have almost no quail now.

I just read a report (because of this thread) and in 1962 135,000 hunters harvested 4 million quail in Georgia (estimated) and by 2019 13,000 hunters harvested 130,000 birds but 117,000 of those were pen raised birds. That is a depressing decline.

There has been a lot of studies done and almost all of them point to habitat degradation as the main reason quail are depleted. What those studies do not look at are what has happened to the birds that were numerous and did not use what is considered typical quail habitat in Georgia. It was well known in most of the quail hunting areas of the state that for every covey of birds found in somewhat accesible areas of fields and broom sage there were 10 coveys who never left incredibly thick cover in swamps and river bottoms. Those areas have not changed as much as the typical habitat....and those birds are non-existent now also.

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It’s really not so much the ants but rather land use and land management changes.

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This.

I heard the 1st quail that I've heard in 10+ yrs at my farm a few weeks ago. Heard it 3 different days. Sounded like it might have been a male looking for females.

Burning is very important for quail. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, it was a common practice.

Very few people burn anymore.

I tried to burn my place last year. Had everything ready to go (fire lines cut and things I didn't want burned protected) but I was never burn it with the wind and rain.
State was going to burn my lower 45 acres but they had the same problem. Just too windy and wet.

I'm hoping that changes this coming spring. Having quail is the ultimate dream/goal at my place.