[QUOTE=Gerald McPherson;10242]This morning I saw a large hawk with a dead crow and 2 other crows chaseing him as he flew away. I too have always heard it said that the quail numbers did reach a max every 10 years. I am sure that the quail has evolved over the years in their reactions. 40 ago years I remember seeing them fly a short distance set their wings and go down but over the years they will now fly a quarter of a mile or more. I once flushed a covey in some cleared land that went out of sight over a distant hill and as I followed them I met a dear hunter and ask if he saw them come over the hill. He said yes. I asked where they went down and he said they didn't they were still going when they went out of sight over the next hill. I saw a rabbit while rabbit hunting with dogs in South Georgia come out in a field edge and run several hundred yards before going back in the brush. I think mabe that was how he had survived the coyotes. They don't seem to run in small circles anymore.
I have decided to give up trying to hunt wild quail. Yesterday I sold Scooter to a hunting preserve. He will see more birds there in a day than he would in a year in the wild. It was sad for me but it will be much better for him. I will still shoot the crap out of doves and crows and anything else that I think might hurt the quail. Happy New Year Everyone. Gerald
-- Sad indeed that a man who grew up hunting "Gent'man Bob" borrowing from my favorite writer Robert C. Ruark here- now finds the quail population so decimated, from land development, predators, loss of habitat, etc.
I recall as a boy both my Father and GrandFather telling me, after a great day with pheasants and maybe ducks on the many private farms we had access to-- words like this: "Son, enjoy this while you can, because someday when you come back here, the farm will be gone and a shopping mall will have taken over this land"-- Sad, but a true prophesy indeed.
Two of the Clubs where I shoot pheasants are located on older farms, and as I am also an avid varmint hunter, there is a great increase in the hawk and avaian presence there (and let me be clear- I don't shoot hawks or accipiters) but also an increase in coyotes and foxes- and let me be also clear- those I shoot on sight-and not for the pelts--
Dean is also right, the encroachment of coyotes (and deer and turkeys) into suburban areas where discharge of firearms is prohibited, is also a part of the problem. I also agree that shooting pen-raised quail cannot be the same as hunting native birds back in the pre-WW11 South, or even better, pre WW1 era-- and pen raised pheasants are a substitute, a better than nothing bird, and I would never compare shooting at such clubs that release them to hunting native birds in KS, SD, ND, NE or MT- (as I have a few times in the past seasons)--
Also note I said "shooting" pen raised birds, and not 'hunting"- not that a preserve is a 100% guarantee- you can miss, the dog(s) can have an off day, the birds can spook and run out ahead of the dog just as native birds do. But just like the gentleman from GA who decries the lack of the huntable numbers of quail from his early years, I feel the same pang about the pheasants of my boyhood days afield.
And as a Sponsor member of DU and PF, I know that legal hunting seasons on native game birds are not the cause, regardless of the amount of birds harvested. Hunter's $ and hard work in groups like these and many others (RGS, Quail and Turkey groups, etc.) are also part of the balance we have, cyclic perhaps, I can't say. I just hope my Grandsons will be able to hunt waterfowl and game birds and share a passion for good dogs and fine guns as I have had the good fortune to know all my life..