Released quail just are not able to survive those conditions. Only once in all my years of chasing wild Bobs did I find a frozen quail. 1983 saw high temperatures of minus 13 (the high!!). Wind chills were below minus 30 at night. I found one frozen bird.
Far worse for wild Bobs are cold and wet during the brood season. Working with the MO Department of Conservation quail researcher, Beth Emerich, she showed me years of data for both precipitation/temperature during the major brood period and Fall populations. It was quite convincing.
The good thing, Harold, is that WV can still produce birds to release, and that you can head to Kansas.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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