Saw a Covey of Bobwhite Quail Yesterday

We have a few in my old lease. On a frosty morning they will stop your heart. Come out from right under your feet.

I spend an inordinate amount of time on the wrong side of the Savannah River in an area that is about as close to what the Savannah River Valley below I-20 would have been like 300 years ago. In nearly 6 years I have not seen nor heard a partridge.

The county on the right side of the river still calls itself "The Bird Dog Capital of The World" and even in the 80s there was a lot of truth in that name....the area was LOUSY with partridges. I bet there ain't 20 working bird dogs in that county today and those are field trial and plantation dogs.

I talked to the game manager and environmental people on the place on the wrong side of the river a few years back and they all agree that the population of quail in the area is far more normal today than it was from the mid 18th century until the late 20th century. Both sides of the river would have been mostly pine forests and river bottom hardwoods prior to settling by Europeans....it was this groups propensity for clearing pine forests and planting crops that created the perfect environment for "the saucy little patrician" (Havilah Babcock). The science suggests that current populations are more in line with what the area held in its hey day. There ain't an ounce of solace in that for anyone other than a scientist I reckon....

That said there are also a lot of swamps on both sides of the river today and, back when quail were plentiful, there were birds in those swamps that never ventured out of them....they were noticeably different from their field edge cousins....bigger, better fliers, less prone to flushing because the cover allowed them to run like pheasants and never be detected and blue bloody hell on the central nervous system of pointers and anyone who happened upon them. Those covey's probably, according to those same scientists, made up the bulk of the quail in area prior to European settlement. Those coveys are also gone for the most part. Its a damn shame. Nothing said the south in my part of the south like the Bob White....at least in my 61 years....

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South of Milton FL at an NWR called Escribano Point that sits in between Eglin land and Blackwater Bay. First time I've seen any around here. Really only the second time I can remember seeing any ever. Saw some by the Jim Woodruff dam (Lake Seminole/Apalachicola River) a couple of years ago. I've heard people older than me say that there used to be a far greater number around. It was neat to see.

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We have a lot in a lake development on Clarks Hill Lake and I was cutting some trees this past April and heard one....first time I have heard one in years. Haven't seen of heard him since. I have just about convinced myself I imagined it.


Young folks will never believe this but I grew up on the west side of Atlanta and in the late 1970s and early 80s it was possible to walk up enough coveys and singles to make it worthwhile in any part of metro Atlanta. I have shot wads of quail in the excess parking lot at 6 Flags and along the Chattahoochee River on 6 Flags property by walking them up. Any power line right of way in Metro Atlanta had enough quail, just 50 or so years ago, to make hunting them worthwhile. I bet you could hunt the entirety of Cobb and Douglas Counties today and not find a breeding pair. Its a damn shame.

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Wrong. the issue is fire ants destroying their eggs

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Fire ants will definitely kill a young quail but habitat is the reason for the decline. If you took a snapshot of when peepaw
could walk the back 40 and shoot a limit in an hour and look at what that place looks like today you would see. If you stocked every place that had quail in the 70s, 99% would starve to death in a few days because the habitat isn’t there anymore.

Cutovers used to be full of insects and great annuals and then get burned. Now they get nuked and planted with pine trees so thick nothing can grow

Those weedy fence rows peepaw used to have around his little gardens and cow pastures that were full of briars are now sprayed with roundup and patrolled by feral cats all days and night not even a cardinal can make a nest there and survive

There are places in Louisiana right now that are teeming with quail due to good habitat The people who know are tight lipped about it

what is that guy's name? I want to listen. Thanks.

Papaw had a modest 100 acs between campti and black lake with several coveys. My uncle decided to clear all of the wind rows for me he cows.
Never saw another quail on that land after it was cleaned up all pretty.
We are own worst enemy.

The quail population here in the low country of South Carolina has been under pressure for a long time. We would hear their call and see them crossing road and yards all the time decades ago. The invasive species like coyotes and such have really destroyed their habitat. My family train dog specifically to hunt quail back in the day and we always hunting them with conservation in mind. Beautiful birds!

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I used to come across quail in all types of habitat, including wiregrass pine woods of the Florida panhandle

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That’s probably still the best population of wild quail in the eastern United States in the wiregrass Longleaf and slash savanna’s there.

The habitat where they used to be in Louisiana is now row planted pines that the owners only care about growing pine trees and killing every plant that isn’t a pine. That’s the habitat issue

You can also look on any Facebook page dealing with habitat management and the number one question is what is this plant growing in my food plot and how do I kill it Most the time its a great native plant that provides much more value than the rye grass monoculture they are trying to create

I have been seeing and hearing the most quail in my life in Louisiana the last few years. Hearing them on Saline Lake, Black Lake, Red River and surprising amount of public land. A lot of pine plantations are hitting time to clear cut and I think that had something to do with it.