And all my life I thought we were poor. Now in my sunset days I learn that we did a half billion dollars worth of wild quail hunting. Pen raised birds are for puppies.

I can hold my own on those birds Gary. It helps to have a good dog of course but it's strictly instinct shooting. After honing my skills on those liitle brown rockets twisting and turning to clear a cat briar bramble it made the transition to grouse hunting that much easier. I really, really miss those days. Walking the fields at dawn listening for old Bob's whistle to locate coveys was a great way to start the day. Even my old pointer Syman would perk his ears to the sound.

In the mid- to late 1960s thru the early 1980s, DE had some of the finest wild quail hunting in the mid-Atlantic region. Large interior farms, some only minutes from the popular beaches, held multiple coveys. Still sparsely populated and remote, I have a suspicion some of these farms may still harbor decent populations of wild quail. Could be worth a field trip and a DE nonresident license!

in the 1960s my dads place was 152 acres it had 5 wild coveys on it...not one covey now probably 10 yesars since I ve heard a bob white...charlie

When we first moved in here in NE Massachusetts in 1976 we would hear bobwhite calling in the evening from across the Shawsheen flats. “Evening vespers” I’ve heard it called. Then that area quickly became industrialized.
We would hear them off and on for the first 5 or 6 years but haven’t heard them in close to 40 years now.





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There is certainly a lot to be said for progress, but it's accounts like this that remind us of the cost of that progress.

We did quail hunt in a thunderstorm once or maybe it was a tropical storm , they were determined to try to get a handful more of birds . There horses were not too pleased .

I can remember going quail hunting for the first time as a boy, with an adult. I remember that first covey rise, the field it was in, and the direction the birds went ...........nearly 60 years ago. Yet, I can't remember over two things my wife asks me to pick up at the supermarket ...........an hour ago.

SRH

Dad supposedly had 9 coveys when he bought his place. That went down to zero, as far as I could tell. This year there appear to be two that we see regularly. A long way to go, but progress

I can remmember opening the draperies in my bedroom when I was fiveish sixish . Our house then was built kinda into a bank and my window was level with the chrysanthemum bed outside the window this woulda been around 66-67 . We lived in the country of course anyway I’d open the window and many mornings a covey of quail would be in that flower bed staring at me thru the window .