On The Third Day of Christmas....

[Harold Pickens]

WV started an aggressive stocking of quail on their WMAs 3 years ago after Governor Big Jim Justice decided he missed hearing the quail of his youth. These are pen raised birds, not wild trapped birds. Don't know if these birds will be able to reproduce and repopulate. The cover is thick and nasty stands of brushy autumn olive, briars etc , with areas of switch grass interspersed. Great cover for the birds. The big problem is getting the birds to flush. Almost impossible to get to the birds and flush them, you can often hear and see them running under the autom olive. My setters won't break even though they can obviously see the birds also. There were several coveys yesterday that I heeled the dogs away from because I couldn't get them in the air, at times on my knees trying to get thru the cover.. A little cocker spaniel flush dog at heel would be just the ticket for this. Still, a lot better than nothing. I ran my dogs late last March and was still finding birds then, so maybe getting better carry over than expected, more birds were released in late summer and hopefully will get decent survival. Headed back out there today.