Bobwhite Reintroduction!

[Mike of the Mountain]

Art, this was planned for over 10 years. The PGC had been working on quail habitat in Central PA. There will be 25 wild birds from VA, 25 from KY and 50 from FL all total that will be stocked on that Army base this year. Word is that over the past few years there has been quite a bit of predator trapping on the base too. Most of our birds need some predators removed to successfully grow the populations. That's one thing the PGC is finding while working with MO and a few other states that are actively studying turkey populations. Hard data is needed for them to make changes. Comments pro or con regarding predator removal don't cut it. Good research gets things done. We need healthy habitat and we need to take some predators out of the equation. I'm looking forward to being out and trapping again next winter. I enjoy it and it helps our bird populations on our property.

Just a happy note, we've been hearing grouse drumming here for the past month! It's the first time in probably four years!

[TOOL MAN]

"YUMMMMMMM, 100 HOT-POCKETS!!!!"

"Sure beats the starlings at the town dump.

Thanks PGC, that should feed me and my hood for at least a week!!!"

RED TAIL.jpg

[Mike of the Mountain]

Hawk are very tasty especially marinated and smoked on a Traeger.

[Jim McKee]

Mike, I hope the BW releases work
We had hunt-able populations of BWs in our county just north of I-70 until the Blizzard in the mid 1970s. I hunted them on the Dillon Wildlife area many times
Our ODW refuses to release BWs in our area- the reason "BWs cannot survive this far north"
Jim

[Harold Pickens]

Ohio still has a quail season in some of the southwestern counties--these are wild birds. As Jim attested, the blizzards of 77-78 wiped out the quail in the rest of the state. Growing up on a dairy farm in eastern Ohio, quail were common until then.
West Virginia released wild trapped quail in some of the southern coal fields a few years ago and are still hanging on but not thriving. The WV DNR has been releasing pen raised quail on other WMA's and I had a great time this year with my setters. I was sttill working my dogs on them up until a few weeks ago, but have now stopped. Doubtful, but hopeful those birds may reproduce this spring. I need to go out and listen to see if I can hear a little bob-white calling--god, how I miss that. I can see why my friend Garry is so enamored with them.

[Harold Pickens]

A couple recent junk store finds:

[George "Scott" Davis]

Growing up in rural Central Illinois in the fifties & sixties many of the farm kids had trap-lines and helped control the population of raccoons, skunks, red fox and weasels (didn't have coyotes then in our areas). Our local game warden even helped teach us how to set traps, skin the animals and stretch the hides, what a great era of our country.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Mike Koneski

Hawk are very tasty especially marinated and smoked on a Traeger.

I’ve been told freshly dug holes like consuming Hawk carcasses

[Gary Laudermilch]

When I was in college in 1967 I hunted the area not too far from Letterkenny. I waws hunting pheasants primarily but I flushed more quail than pheasants. I hope this successful.

[William Woods]

The mid-seventies winters, advances (?) in farming practices, machinery, chemicals, decline (if not outright ending) of trapping, have all contributed to all but elimination of a huntable population of quail in my area.

Years ago, I was told by DNR officials in both Kentucky and Indiana that the introduction of pen reared quail was a failure everywhere it had been tried.

Another theory was that the introduction of pen reared quail were carriers of disease that contributed to the demise of wild quail wherever the pen raised were released, either by well-meaning individuals or people working their dogs on the released birds.