4th time this week I've flushed a covey of Quail

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  • CountryBoy19

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 91.7%
    11   1   0
    Nov 10, 2008
    8,412
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    Bedford, IN
    At the new place I have a good 2/10th mile walk from the house to my shop. 4th time this week I've flushed a covey of Quail on the way to the shop.

    As a relative youngster I had never had the opportunity to even see Quail until recent years; I've definitely never hunted them. I look forward to hunting them.

    Sometime in the next year or so I'll be enrolling my 30 tillable acres in CRP programs that will not only enable me, but they will assist me in managing my place for wildlife. With plenty of deer habitat around my goal is to manage for upland game birds with maybe a few legume food plots to draw the deer out of the woods. I'm sure once that gets established I'll be able to hunt some quail without feeling guilty for decimating the population. FWIW the covey I've flushed 4 times now (assuming its the same covey) has ranged from 3-7 birds, so not really an impressive covey size. I hope to correct that.
     

    gregr

    Master
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    0   0   0
    Jan 1, 2016
    4,300
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    West-Central
    My buddy and I have stumbled onto a covey as we`ve rabbit hunted the past couple years. We knocked a couple down, but mostly left them alone after that. It`s pretty special finding wild birds in Indiana these days, good for you man.
     

    fro65

    Plinker
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    2   0   0
    Dec 31, 2012
    80
    6
    South of Ft. Wayne
    I hope they are making a comeback. The first week of December, I was bush hogging one of my watersheds and kicked up a covey of about a dozen birds.

    Prior to this, the last time I saw any quail around here was before the blizzard of '78. That, combined with all of the farmers ripping out all fence rows, pretty well wiped them out.

    Used to be able to sit outside any summer evening and get them to answer a 'bob white' whistle...miss those days.
     

    CountryBoy19

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 91.7%
    11   1   0
    Nov 10, 2008
    8,412
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    Bedford, IN
    I hope they are making a comeback. The first week of December, I was bush hogging one of my watersheds and kicked up a covey of about a dozen birds.

    Prior to this, the last time I saw any quail around here was before the blizzard of '78. That, combined with all of the farmers ripping out all fence rows, pretty well wiped them out.

    Used to be able to sit outside any summer evening and get them to answer a 'bob white' whistle...miss those days.

    I think they are making a come-back but only in small pockets that really suit their environmental needs really well. Unfortunately, just as soon as one guy with a goal starts up some habitat, the moron down the road (who has a bulldozer and he knows how to use it) buys a good habitat property and brings the dozer in the take out every living thing on the place. The above bull-dozer relation really happened; 105 acre property broken up into about 8 different fields with thick fence-rows separating them now looks like a nuclear bomb test site. The really unfortunate thing is that he farms the place behind me and I'm afraid if that ever comes up for sale he'll on it and do the same... :(
     

    Woobie

    Grandmaster
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    0   0   0
    Dec 19, 2014
    7,197
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    Losantville
    I hope they are making a comeback. The first week of December, I was bush hogging one of my watersheds and kicked up a covey of about a dozen birds.

    Prior to this, the last time I saw any quail around here was before the blizzard of '78. That, combined with all of the farmers ripping out all fence rows, pretty well wiped them out.

    Used to be able to sit outside any summer evening and get them to answer a 'bob white' whistle...miss those days.

    The growth in the coyote population hasn't helped, either. But I agree, loss of habitat is the major problem.
     

    oldpink

    Grandmaster
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    0   0   0
    Apr 7, 2009
    6,660
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    Farmland
    I occasionally see a Bobwhite, but it's been decades since I've flushed more than one at a time, ever since the extremely harsh winter of 1977, with the near coup de grace being the legendary Blizzard of '78.
     

    thunderchicken

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    Feb 26, 2010
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    Indianapolis
    Back around '90 a friend of my dad's allowed us to rabbit hunt on his property (somewhere on 144) and there were lots of quail on any given day we would flush 4 or 5 coveys. The first time we were there dad had been telling stories of him hunting quail with my grandaddy (who passed when I was a baby). And how grandad had the barrel cut off his shotgun to get rid of the full choke for huntin quail. It was before he bought me my first shotgun and I was so proud/honored to be hunting with my grandaddy's shotgun. Then when I saw that first covey rise I couldn't help but sling some lead...only wounded a tree. Good times and great memories
     

    Woobie

    Grandmaster
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    0   0   0
    Dec 19, 2014
    7,197
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    Losantville
    Back around '90 a friend of my dad's allowed us to rabbit hunt on his property (somewhere on 144) and there were lots of quail on any given day we would flush 4 or 5 coveys. The first time we were there dad had been telling stories of him hunting quail with my grandaddy (who passed when I was a baby). And how grandad had the barrel cut off his shotgun to get rid of the full choke for huntin quail. It was before he bought me my first shotgun and I was so proud/honored to be hunting with my grandaddy's shotgun. Then when I saw that first covey rise I couldn't help but sling some lead...only wounded a tree. Good times and great memories

    Man that's cool :yesway:
     

    CountryBoy19

    Grandmaster
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    11   1   0
    Nov 10, 2008
    8,412
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    Bedford, IN
    So, OP... Wanna hunt coyote at your place? :D
    Yup! Come on down, you're welcome anytime... I don't have a caller but if you have one to bring I suspect we may be a bit more successful. I have a pretty good set of snares out already but so far I've come up dry. I know they are here, I hear them howling on a weekly basis and the neighbor (w/ 30+ trail-cams) says he catches more pictures of yote than he does of deer... they're here, I just don't have the best circumstances for good snaring. I'm thinking about getting set up for trapping.

    I've also been told possom and coon's are a detriment to quail because they are ground-nesting, meaning any possom or coon that finds the nest can just snack away on the eggs...
     

    Field King

    Expert
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    Oct 26, 2008
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    drop some trees every 100 feet or so on the perimeter of the 30 tillable you have then next year drop a tree every 50 feet or so then 3rd year every 25 feet. Get the edge piles and ground cover going. The quail will have a chance.
     

    CountryBoy19

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 91.7%
    11   1   0
    Nov 10, 2008
    8,412
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    Bedford, IN
    drop some trees every 100 feet or so on the perimeter of the 30 tillable you have then next year drop a tree every 50 feet or so then 3rd year every 25 feet. Get the edge piles and ground cover going. The quail will have a chance.

    Ground cover, brush piles, edge margins are all in the long-term plan but dropping trees to do it isn't in the plan...

    I have a tree-service down the road a mile, I plan to stop by and offer up a place to dump tree tops but I can't do it until after this farming season. The farmer has the land through this season, I assured him of that when I bought the place in late fall.
     

    Tactically Fat

    Grandmaster
    Site Supporter
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    22   0   0
    Oct 8, 2014
    8,270
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    Indiana
    Yup! Come on down, you're welcome anytime... I don't have a caller but if you have one to bring I suspect we may be a bit more successful. I have a pretty good set of snares out already but so far I've come up dry. I know they are here, I hear them howling on a weekly basis and the neighbor (w/ 30+ trail-cams) says he catches more pictures of yote than he does of deer... they're here, I just don't have the best circumstances for good snaring. I'm thinking about getting set up for trapping.

    I've also been told possom and coon's are a detriment to quail because they are ground-nesting, meaning any possom or coon that finds the nest can just snack away on the eggs...

    If I ever have a free weekend... We'll work something out!!!
     
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