# Question about quail



## DeereMan95 (Oct 18, 2016)

Where are the vast amounts of quail going? Its like they are just disappearing into thin air. I could blame coyotes, but a farm that i have caught countless amounts of predators on has very few left. The habitat is perfect plenty of fence rows and slightly overgrown pastureland with briar thickets. Me personally I believe alot of farming practices are affecting the hatching numbers. Chicken litter is also detrimental to chicks and grown birds, Chickens carry diseases that are fatal to quail. What do you guys think? Quail are a precious resource that very few care about anymore.


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## maker4life (Oct 19, 2016)

Habitat fragmentation. I work on most of the private plantations and large tracts of land in the Red Hills and Albany regions. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of birds this summer. Heck I was on Dixie last Friday and got up a group with little ones that had hatched in the past six weeks.

Areas where the habitat is there on a large scale are doing very well.


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## MFOSTER (Oct 19, 2016)

Hawks


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## GLS (Oct 20, 2016)

There is no one cause of the decline.  It's been blamed on everything from modern farm practices, loss of the small farms, shrinking habitat, to pesticides, herbicides, eye worm disease (TX), predators, fire ants, turkeys eating young quail, and the list goes on.  Management techniques from SW Ga. have been tried on large tracts in other areas of  the state with mixed results.


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## DeereMan95 (Oct 20, 2016)

Thanks for the replies its crazy how the number of quail have declined since i was a kid and I'm just 20 years old.


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## coveyrise (Oct 20, 2016)

I think there are a lot more quail out there than most people think. I have seen more quail this year than I have in years. The quail are adapting to some of the changes in land practices. I have seen a lot of birds ( like swamp bottoms and cotton fields) where I have not in many years. Think it's going to be a good year. This is the year of the partridge pea and beggar weed. It's everywhere.


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## GLS (Oct 21, 2016)

Clemson did a study on the changing quail habitat that was reported in South Carolina Wildlife magazine a few years ago that stated finding more and more quail in bottom lands and swamps than had been previously noted.  Acorn particles were found the bird's crops.  The acorn pieces were speculated to be leftover "crumbs" from deer and squirrel feeding activity.  Gil


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## NUTT (Oct 21, 2016)

Hawks, coyotes, fox and simply the lack of trapping IMO.


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## Kawaliga (Oct 21, 2016)

I am seeing more and more quail on my place in Macon county. It is mostly woods and swamp with scattered food plots. Hope they continue to increase.


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## maker4life (Oct 21, 2016)

As far as the bottom lands
 I was working in the flat woods in eastern Lowndes on a tract a couple of weeks ago and saw several coveys right on the swamp edges. 

Craziest thing. They were literally walking on wet ground and would go into the swamp for cover.


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## coveyrise (Oct 21, 2016)

I have watched birds fly to the biggest swamp hole right at dark to roost. They are flying out of the finest cover you have ever seen to roost in this wet, rough swamp. I can only figure that they have found a safe haven in the swamp.


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## GLS (Oct 24, 2016)

Last woodcock season we busted a covey of 15+ in a swamp.  The birds were in there where it was thick, wet and full of woodcock.  Gil


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## FlightBird (Oct 24, 2016)

My 2 cents would be, Turkeys and the limit of 12 birds .


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## maconbacon (Oct 24, 2016)

FlightBird said:


> My 2 cents would be, Turkeys and the limit of 12 birds .



Research I've done on the subject says there is evidence turkeys eat quail hatchlings but very few and far between and is very unlikely to affect the quail population, if at all.

I think it is mostly, as others have stated, loss of habitat primarily and second cause being changes in farming practices. I'm going to Tall Timbers Field Day Friday and hope to learn their thoughts on turkeys, habitat loss, etc.


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## smoothie (Oct 25, 2016)

I have noticed a big boost in our area that has been open to trappers that catch all predators and not just the coyotes.


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## mose (Oct 25, 2016)

My family has around 1100 acres of mostly CRP land outside of Montgomery, Al. In the 80s we had a ton of wild birds.  Now you might bump a few birds a year. NOTHING has changed on our place but the birds just aren't there anymore. I miss those heart attacks when you are walking to your deer stand in the dark and flush a large covey at your feet.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 25, 2016)

One thing that helps quail is to combat fire ants. We`ve seen a noticeable population increase in the quail around here.

We lose more to Cooper`s hawks than anything else.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 25, 2016)

There used to be lots of quail here, too. Now there are pretty much none. We don't even have fire ants here in my area of the mountains, and there is still a good bit of grown-up land with broomsedge and blackberry thickets, but the quail have gone away. Grouse went from abundant to scarce in the same timeframe, even in areas with good habitat. I don't know what the answer is.


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## brunofishing (Oct 25, 2016)

We are slap covered up with quail. They have made a great come back from none 10 years ago. Our property is participating in the long leaf pine program, I think its helping!


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 25, 2016)

brunofishing said:


> We are slap covered up with quail. They have made a great come back from none 10 years ago. Our property is participating in the long leaf pine program, I think its helping!



Glad to hear it. I miss jumping coveys, and I miss sitting on the porch and hearing them whistle in the summertime.


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## Nicodemus (Oct 25, 2016)

NCHillbilly said:


> Glad to hear it. I miss jumping coveys, and I miss sitting on the porch and hearing them whistle in the summertime.




I can sometimes hear up to a dozen rooster bobs whistling around here on a summer afternoon.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 25, 2016)

IT used to be like that around here. I heard a total of one all summer last year.


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## FlightBird (Oct 25, 2016)

When the quail and grouse population was higher years ago how was the turkey population back then .


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## GLS (Oct 26, 2016)

Texas last year had near historic numbers of quail unseen for, what some said, since the 1950s.  Texas has had fire ants, turkeys, coyotes since the beginning of time, eye worm disease and all sorts of inhospitable factors, but the birds bounced back.  Go figure....


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## coveyrise (Oct 28, 2016)

Isn't it amazing what a lot of rain can do for a drought stricken state. Hope we are not headed for a drought like Texas had. It could happen. When the rain returned, so did the cover. As did the quail.2


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## KyDawg (Oct 28, 2016)

Here in Kentucky, loss of habitat is the biggest culprit. In the 80's there was 9 fencerows in the field behind my house that held around 10 coveys. They have cleared every single fence row out and now there are no coveys back there.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 29, 2016)

FlightBird said:


> When the quail and grouse population was higher years ago how was the turkey population back then .



Much lower.


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## duckhunter2010 (Oct 30, 2016)

I like to think I stay in the loop pretty well on this subject. Research from the Albany Quail Project shows that less than 1 percent of nests are actually lost from fire ant damage. The problems are mainly a loss of habitat (clean farming) and an increase in mammalian predators. This is from seeing the research and also some observations from my time tracking quail for Tall Timbers. Quail are expensive to manage for properly. But where money is no object, numbers are still thriving.


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## leroy (Nov 26, 2016)

In NE Georgia My dad was an avid quail hunter from the 60s until the early mid nineties, i grew up in it and loved it, i can count on my 2 hands the number of quail I have seen in the last 6-8 yrs where we could go out and find 8-10 covies a day in those golden yrs


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## leroy (Nov 26, 2016)

And my dad killed every hawk he could along with any cat he seen out hunting back in those years. He kept a bull barrel 222 in the truck to help with hawk control. I've heard him name all the reasons in this thread but I believe its lack of predator control we had alot of trappers back then took out alot of Fox, bobcats, coons, didnt have coyotes but trappers are almost unheard of now


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## Uptonongood (Nov 27, 2016)

maker4life said:


> Habitat fragmentation. I work on most of the private plantations and large tracts of land in the Red Hills and Albany regions. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of birds this summer. Heck I was on Dixie last Friday and got up a group with little ones that had hatched in the past six weeks.
> 
> Areas where the habitat is there on a large scale are doing very well.



Preserve habitat, manage it correctly, enhance it where possible, get the right weather conditions during nesting/rearing season and the birds typically will do well.


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## TexasRed45 (Dec 7, 2016)

I'm a college student earning my degree in history right now, and the topic I got to pick for a research paper I just wrote was the depopulation of quail in Georgia.  Its a subject that I've been hearing about my whole life via my pops and uncle, so I am extremely familiar with it.  But its been really cool reading this post and everyone's responses to it as I have been writing this paper.  Cool stuff, and I'm glad the birds are coming back in some areas.


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## Killinstuff (Dec 8, 2016)

A good book to read on the subject is For a Handful of Feathers by Guy de la Valdene.  I have never bought into 4 legged predators affecting bird numbers anywhere but a hawk will get his fill and humans following up singles will wipe out a covey in time.


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## Barebowyer (Dec 9, 2016)

I agree with predators(lack of trapping) and also birds of prey.  However, I have seen more wild quail this year than I have in the past fifteen seasons put together.  Even getting pics of coveys on my trail cams this year. I do know, when a predator is removed, it helps a great deal with all bird production.  There is an abundance of owls and hawks and I have gotten multiple pics of kills they have made in daylight hours on my cams but they're killing squirrels, songbirds, etc as well.


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## GLS (Dec 10, 2016)

There is always hope for a bounce back.  Texas's quail numbers soared last year and are solid again this year.  Reports of numbers of birds equaling what was found many decades ago in TX.  While not an explanation for disappearance in rural areas, Georgia's human population has more than doubled since 1970.  Those folks have to live somewhere cleared by bulldozers.  Gil


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## Jerry Phillips (Dec 10, 2016)

The main reason that quail are having such a hard time is the lack of woods management- I agree that there are many factors but I believe that the lack of control burn & allowing forest to grow so thick that the ground doesn't get enough sunlight, is a huge factor! Our forestry should be promoting fire management but in some cases they actually discourage fire or they don't encourage a fire mgmnt plan! Go to any woods that have been burnt on a regular basis (every 2-4 yrs) & you will see quail habitat! Also woods that are allowed to grow up too thick becomes perfect habitat for an endless host of mammals/predators! I believe that if more land owners would control burn we would see a huge positive impact on quail!


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## KyDawg (Dec 10, 2016)

Do you guys think the increase in released birds has had any effect on the wild Bird population. The places I have hunted that release birds have an unbelievable  population of hawks.


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## GLS (Dec 10, 2016)

Coastal Bermuda grass has impacted some areas that have routine burning.  It's difficult to eradicate.  Quail need bare ground to feed and chicks can't move through the heavy grass cover making them vulnerable.


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## Jerry Phillips (Dec 10, 2016)

KyDawg said:


> Do you guys think the increase in released birds has had any effect on the wild Bird population. The places I have hunted that release birds have an unbelievable  population of hawks.



As long as the pen raised birds are healthy there shouldn't be any adverse effects on the wild birds.


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## antharper (Dec 10, 2016)

I'm in a lease in Coffee co. , we have a few thousand acres that was clear cut 3 yrs ago and burned and planted back by hand and we seen several coveys last yr and this year we are slam covered up , I hunted thanksgiving week and I may of seen more coveys than I did deer , I've got a friend that's a die hard quail hunter and we gonna hunt them a few days as soon as deer season is over , I'll let y'all know how we do ! Also I live in Troup co and I can't remember the last time I seen a covey !


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## GLS (Dec 11, 2016)

Maybe it's just the anecdotal experience of the few folks I know that have shifted to early release birds on their land, but it is difficult to maintain a wild bird population with a released bird program.  Other factors may have been in play.


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## Killinstuff (Dec 11, 2016)

Predators often remove a number of species which compete with the desired game animal for the necessities of life. For example, intensive efforts to increase quail populations on one Georgia plantation by killing or trapping all hawks, owls, foxes, cats and skunks, resulted in a decline in the quail population instead of the expected increase. It was later learned that the predators were primarily preying on cotton rats. After the predators were removed, the cotton rat population increased to a density at which they were destroying a majority of all quail nesting attempts, resulting in fewer quail being produced. A certain amount of nest predation, however, may be beneficial in that the resulting re-nesting spreads the hatch out over a longer period of time, thus reducing the probability of losing all of a year’s production of chicks to a short period of bad weather.

As far as released birds, they don't occupy areas wild birds use so they are an easier target for predators.


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## leroy (Jan 2, 2017)

Killinstuff said:


> As far as released birds, they don't occupy areas wild birds use so they are an easier target for predators.



In the early 80s my dad and friends released alot of birds we still had a good population of wild birds that they hunted regularly and we often killed the released birds mixed in with the wild covies as they were much larger.


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## smoothie (Jan 4, 2017)

Nicodemus said:


> One thing that helps quail is to combat fire ants. We`ve seen a noticeable population increase in the quail around here.
> 
> We lose more to Cooper`s hawks than anything else.



Amen


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