I never flush coveys of bobwhite quail anymore. Back in the '60s and '70s, it was a common thing to flush quail when I went to the woods. When I built my house in '79, we had a covey of quail living in the woods behind the house that we enjoyed seeing regularly. I haven't seen or heard a bobwhite's call around here in several years.

I can't remember the last time I jumped a rabbit in the woods. Squirrels are plentiful and look healthy this year. Occasionally, we see a rabbit in our yard. We used to see lots of them in evening in the roads down at the hunting club. Rabbit and squirrel hunting was the main type of hunting I did growing up. If I depended on rabbits to keep me hunting now, I'm afraid I might not last too long because of boredom.

Coyotes and hogs. How good a job has the DCNR done protecting our native game animals from these two invasive species? Why are they called game animals? I never saw either of them as a kid. Couldn't more have been done to keep them out when they first showed up?

Skunks used to be plentiful. I never smell a skunk around here anymore. Is that something we should be worried about?

Deer seem to be doing pretty good. I hope we don't forget about everything else while we're setting up our state health care plans for them though.

Did I miss the part about "Managing for Trophy bucks"????????????

I thought that was the priority.

49 as much as i hate to say this so... if it doesnt drive revenue into the state it isnt a big issue for the state

Plenty of rabbits on my place and a few quail. I think the dam feral cats and hawks are giving the quail hell but rabbits seem to be doing OK. I don't see how with all the predators we have, bobcats, coyotes, owls, hawks and foxes.
You right about the skunks, they are very rare now days.
I just don't really understand how they got coned into many of the "regulations" that we must now put up with.

If I recall correctly, something like parvo just about wiped out the skunk population in the 70's. I have been seeing, more like smelling them in the last few years. The quail are a different problem though, too many flying predators, too many snakes, too many coons, too many possums, too many coytes, too many bobcats, too many feral cats, too many hogs, too many roaming damn dogs. Other than that they would be doing fine, especially if all of the foodplots were planted with food that they would eat and where they could have some cover, but then the foodplots would not look like the hunters front yard.

Quail populations have declined big time nation wide. I think the debate is mixed on what the most probable causes are, but I think the pet theory is the change in farming practices from small plots with lots of fencelines to huge fields causing a loss of habitat. Blaming their decline on the DCNR is a bit of a stretch at best.

Also, from reading this board, I've concluded that I spend far less time thinking about the DCNR than many here.

I have actually seen several skunks big and pretty....visiting the skinning rack where i hunted last year off hwy 69

I don't think he is saying the DCNR is making quail disappear. But rather they are not doing anything to protect or promote their recovery.....which is one of the purposes of the DCNR.

I can't agree with the rabbit decline though. They are thick as thieves on our lease and in our neighborhood.

Nobody has mentioned armadillos here yet. Im not sure when they showed up in LA (lower Alabama) but only in recent years have they started appearing in NA. Im not sure why you would miss skunks, but could it be that if populations of skunks are declining then dillos could be a part of that? I think they compete for the same foods. The skunks still seem to be plentiful here in northeast Alabama.

While yes in general, No, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, No, No, and, especially NO. They would NOT be doing fine and foodplots will and would do NOTHING to help them. The DCNR can't help either. It is land use practices to the tune of 90%. Farming and a lot less of this:


This (yes, even in your country 49R):


and especially this:


Believe it or don't, but I have clients with a bird per acre, wild quail, that will tell you it is so. Yes predator control is important, but habitat is imperative.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot any agency can do except encourage landowners to create some habitat. However, they don't seem to want to do much on the land they do own! Stan Stewart put this book together a couple years back and it is good - he had some good contributors/editors
http://www.dcnr.state.al.us/hunting/game/Quail.cfm

There are no shortages of skunks in Jackson County.

skunks plenty
quail a few
yotes and coons by the ton
farming - gone
deer and turkey okay
hogs by the ton as well

Can the DCNR do anything about these things? Not really.
When Alabama went from farming to planting pine trees and calling it farming, it pretty much changed the game forever.


I do believe the DCNR is going a good job with what they have. And I don't see the boogy man behind every tree like some.

The market will change how people choose to farm their land. Pine trees, or cotton, or soybeans, or whatever. Heck, I spent November working on a farm where they plant Sunflowers in Lowndes County.

It's almost skunk mating season here in the NE corner of the state. In February there will be road kill skunks all over the place. If you don't have skunks in LA, it's probably because they all moved up here. The first dillo I saw in NE AL was about 7 or 8 years ago. Seeing an occasional road killed dillo, but haven't seen one on the hoof yet.

Some of you seem to infer that the significant reduction of quail and rabbit populations in our mixed pine/hardwood/gum woods of central Alabama where I remember them well were caused by an increase in pine plantations in other parts of the state.

I don't buy your theory. There are woods and habitat that have not changed in this area where quail and rabbits are no longer found in the numbers that used to exist. The mining country of western Jefferson County has never seen a lot of agriculture.

It might surprise some of you that the turkey population has been very good for a few decades here. Not so lately for the quail.

Armadillos were unheard of a couple of decades ago, but they are plentiful now. Hogs have become a problem in the past 20 years as well. Before then, we didn't have them here to my knowlege. Coyotes started encroaching on us back in the mid to late '80s. Roadkills indicate we've still got plenty of coons and possums. We've had a pretty good population of bobcats as long as I can remember.

In all my years of hunting, I've only seen one otter. We've got beavers in a strip pit on our lease. We also have a nesting pair of bald eagles. I can't remember the last fox I saw here.

I may have seen a pair of hybrid wolf/coyotes wading across Davis Creek a couple years back. They were very large for coyotes. I know there were two timber wolfs released there in the past. One was killed and mounted. I saw it at a taxidermist's shop in Bessemer beside a small black bear. The wolf was much larger than the bear.

Still hearing reports of panthers being seen occasionally down by the River.

Just wondering how things are going in other areas.

I don't buy that theory - it just aint so. I been hearing that "it looks like it did 25 years ago, it hasn't changed a bit" since I started working with landowners in the 1980's. Biggest change is lack of fire. But you can't tell me that a 25 year old mixed pine/hardwood stand looks just like it did 25 years ago

Again, it IS NOT pine trees. There is 500,000 acres of quail habitat in south GA that averages 2-3 WILD quail per acre in areas where there is virtually NO farming and a monoculture of pines - they just look like this:


There is significantly less acres in AL that averages one wild bird per acre or so and it also has virtually NO farming. Part of it looks exactly like this:

I didn't say it hasn't changed a bit. I was making the point that it hasn't seen a significant change such as being converted to pine plantation, cutover, etc. Look at my statement in context before you accuse me of spreading falsehoods.

And I'm not talking about flushing quail in the type woods you posted in your pictures. There was a good population of quail that were thriving and surviving in the woods in their natural state both here and in Blount County when I was a kid.

Lighten up, not accusing you of anything, just hear it all the time and said "I don't buy it".

I would argue that quail existing in "their natural state" were existing in woods like the pictures I posted - even in Blount County - Both Longleaf and fire were native to the area historically and "naturally". Mash here to see a picture of open, burned Longleaf existing on your mountains of Blount County in 1906, 106 years ago!:
http://www.longleafalliance.org/oldpage/ecosystem/map/al_blountco1.htm

Fire is a good thing, and needed more often, among other conservation measures like thinning timber and planting beneficial habitat.

People don't like fire because "it looks ugly" but it's a great conservation tool.