Going to have a quail buffer at my hunting spot.

[trailrider]

As the title states I just found out that the property I hunt is going to have quail buffers around the edges of the woods where the cropland meets the woods line. This means there will be a 60 ft. "buffer" between the woods and the crops. There will be a total of 6 acres, including a 2 acre finger surrounded by woods, set aside as an upland bird habitat! I'm pretty excited! I'm gonna have to put forth a better effort to keep the coyotes in check or it will be all for not. I believe it's a 10 year program.

 

[Expatriated]

Well, I wish you the best killing the coyotes. And the fire ants. Don't see too many wild quail anymore. It's my favorite thing to hunt.

 

[jblomenberg16]

We have some family land in a similar program. Its been very hard to get the quail to rebound to the levels they were at say 10-20 years ago. Most of the hunting done is still "put and take" with the hope some of the birds that are released my form up some wild covey.

Coyotes and Raptors (mostly Red Tail Hawks) seem to keep the quail and rabbit population at very low levels around our place. We've not had much luck calling the coyote's either. Plenty of easy food for them in our property and they don't seem too interested in coming in on a call. Gonna have to step it up perhaps with some bait and / or decoys.

 

[trailrider]

I've had similar problems calling yotes as they just aren't that hungry here. I don't expect an abundance of quail but I have seen a few. I remember hunting them 20+ years ago and I loved it. I'm going to do my best to promote the habitat and see what happens over the next few years.

 

[jblomenberg16]

I've had similar problems calling yotes as they just aren't that hungry here. I don't expect an abundance of quail but I have seen a few. I remember hunting them 20+ years ago and I loved it. I'm going to do my best to promote the habitat and see what happens over the next few years.

Good for you. It definitely won't hurt and can only help. I have some fond memories of quail hunting back in the "day" and wish we could get back to that. It wasn't uncommon to run into several wild covey as we walked a variety of land in SW Jackson Co. Nothing like the sounds of a few birds getting flushed by a good hunting dog to quicken the pulse!