Lot's of talk on here about these subjects since I've been around. I'm a rookie , New guy on ALDEER lived in the AL , GA line most of my life , in GA. hunted a season with a 4/10 in 4th grade grew up playing in the beaver swamps . Hunted a season again at 12 . Hunted a seasin at 21. Worked lineman work in the field 15 years. Moved to ALABAMA , because GA wants to tax you to your grave,. My property tax is peanuts here compared to GA . Im huntng my second season after moving to Alabama. , I'm not near as vetted as a lot of you guys, and have a lot to learn , and may flip like Reagon from time to time, but I've always had a passion for the outdoors .. I've got two questions.

1. How many of the guys here have some influence when it comes to politics.
2. What happened to be bob white quail.

Come on guys lets hear it , maybe I shoulda used proper English and put ?? Marks on them improper sentences .

No one with pull is going to answer question #1.
#2 is a long one and there are others better qualified for this. But basically, the increased CRP programs replaced a lot of the old fields with plantation pine monoculture. They were planted at high densities and eliminated a lot of habitat requirements for quail. Predators also exacerbate this but that is second to the habitat issue for quail.

Quail - fire ants and change of land use along with increase in predators

X2. Loss of habitat for quail to hide in along with fire ants covering up a nest or newly hatched bird had a huge impact IMO.

I wouldn't think fire ants alone wiped them out . Not even close .

Who said that?!?

So habitate loss and predators plus hunters. Here is my response I'm a republican and I vote republican, but IMO we got a problem Overhavest and predators . Let's just solve it soneway or another .

Quail: multiple factors including increase in DDT, protecting raptors, changing farming practices from patchwork-fallow to line-to-line, loss of community "knock on a door, close the gate behind you" hunting situations, urbanization overtaking old farming areas, fire ants, predators, fewer trappers and fur-buyers, pesticide-herbicide increase ...

I've read it before somewhere.

I hate to bust your bubble but it's never going to be solved.

Fire ants house cats, coyote, bob cats, hawks, snakes, over hunting a cove, everything was against quail. I have walk a many mile behind my old bird dogs and enjoyed every bit of it. No gardens around now. You could always find a cove around a pea patch.

Answer to 1...The only clout I got is the one vote I get to use each election.

There are all sorts of reasons for question 2.

My son has a few around his place and I love to hear them whistle in the Spring.

It's all about the habitat

It actually has been solved in the 80's. There are plantations in GA that are carrying as many or more quail than they ever have and without controlling fire ants. There are a few places in Alabama that have good densities as well. Couple birds per acre in GA and FL plantations, a bird per acre in Alabama. They ALL look like this:



1) Optimally managed habitat 2) intensive predator control 3) year round feeding.

This habitat will hold more deer than most other habitat types so they need to keep the deer numbers low - they eat up all the good quail food plants. Great turkey hunting as well.

Most of these plantations are keeping bird numbers as high as possible because they are selling quail hunting for a profit. Good post

So that's basically a quail farm.

What happened to them? First, nobody really farms in Alabama anymore. You just have pockets here and there. In addition if you do farm and for years your practice was to turn the crop residue under after harvest there is no bean stubble for them to run around in.

Fire ants, hawks, etc.

Result = Fewer quail.

Times have changed. Hope you got a few good hunts, but it will never be like it was.

Actually the "sell quail hunt" properties are pen-raised quail - cost to hunt wild bird places is way to high. 80% + of the wild bird places are for private use only.

As said before, habitat is the key, and lots of it. Farming now consists of monster fields with no hedgerows, intensive herbicides and insecticides, and no fallow ground and tree farming with too many trees per acre. Also lack of burning where everyone used to burn.