quote:
I was told forestry, when they cut most of the natural trees down and planted pines all over Louisiana, also this caused fire ants to spread due to the soil.

The coveys I know of around me now are on timber company lands that are managed for pine timber by Weyerhauser, and animals by the lease holders. A lot of it used to be old mixed pine/hardwood stands and didn’t have many quail, or at least people didn’t quail hunt it - which probably means it didn’t have them. But the bottomlands with the “perfect” quail habitat of small broken ag fields with home places and ditch/fence rows galore that used to be thick with them years back now have very few today.

I am not saying it is all avian predators, but hawks sure are a lot more common around ag fields than they are random 40 acre pine stands. Because there is more food there and easier to see it. Whether it is a baby rabbit, a dove, a rat, a mouse, or a quail; if a hawk perched nearby sees it then that is the end of the road for the prey.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by PlaySomeHonk

Montegut La and Liberty MS

Member since Jan 2023

695 posts

Posted on 7/22/26 at 8:26 am to Funky Tide 8

Beautiful and great pics. I’m 65 and used to hunt quail with my grandfather in SW MS, mostly in corn and bean fields. Ag fields have been replaced by plantation pine. I bought a place up here in 2008 and now live on it. I’ve managed for wildlife, especially quail for several years. This year from late May until today, I hear male and female quail most of the day, almost every day. I see them even in my yard regularly. I really can’t even believe it.

Some of it may just be luck and chance, but here’s what I do. I purposely leave fence lines to grow, I don’t burn brush pipes, I leave them to rot. Quail nest in the piles and predators have a hard time getting in them. Same for briar patches.

IMO, roundup and mowing to make pasture look like yards has been a huge impact. Successional timber management is also key. Thin, clear cut, burn, and disk. I also trap and shoot nest predators. Not sure how long this will last but that quail whistle is a song to my soul and I’m thankful for each one.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by Ron Cheramie

The Cajun Hedgehog

Member since Aug 2016

5686 posts

Posted on 7/22/26 at 9:37 am to PlaySomeHonk

quote:
IMO, roundup and mowing to make pasture look like yards has been a huge impact.

This is huge for turkeys and other ground nesting birds and also fawns. Called recreational mowing syndrome. We just have to mow when something looks overgrown. That nice cool day in may when we go to the camp we just have to Bushhog that weedy food plot that is perfect brood habitat for ground dwelling birds

Page 1 2 3