Holiday quail and another obsure game bird with a Parker

[Forrest Smith]

Here are a couple of real quail from Central Texas from the holiday trip home. There is some light at the end of the tunnel as far as the home place quail go, 3 big coveys seen while deer hunting. We bumped the mailbox covey when dove hunting and took two in the old field in front of the house, just for old time's sake and to say we had a Christmas quail hunt. We left plenty for next spring, which if it is wet will result in a serious quail hunt next Christmas Day. The old photo is one of my dad with birds from the same covey circa 1975. I killed my first quail from the covey, about 1988. This regular covey always provided a warm up for Sport the brittany right out of the gate on an old mornings hunt, he'd invariably bust them out of jitters and craziness, but settle down nicely for the singles in the field behind the mower in the picture. The covey was down to 5 or 6 a couple winters ago, but they have rebounded nicely. Great memories tied to a great game bird.

Below the quail are two white-tipped doves taken this morning down south. These guys hide in the same stuff the chachalacas do, and they're more of a quail than a dove in habits and style of shooting. They're big birds, nearly twice the size of a mourning dove. No quail here in deep south Texas to shoot, on account of the drought, but next year is shaping up to be good with the rains of late. Saw 4 chachalacas this morning but couldn't manage a shot on account of the cover and poor luck, a great hunt as far as those birds go though.

FS