Habitat

With all the rain the habitat looks good. Has anybody been seeing any broods yet of quail or pheasants? The cover on our places is so tall and lush hard to see anything, all quail where we are. Have been hearing the quail whistling so some of them survived all the flooding.
 
Been seeing a lot of quail on roads early morning and late evening. Looks like it will be a good year for the birds in our area!
 
Birds seem to be down in this part of the state (north). Up at my dad's place there's usually a rooster for each hedge-row cackling away each spring/summer as they mark their territory. He hasn't heard a single rooster all season. Last winter did a number on some of our birds. I think within his area they really took a hit.

I haven't seen any broods but have heard a few cackling this past spring. Not as many cackling roosters as I would normally hear but a few.

Nesting conditions were not in the favor of pheasants this past spring and summer. I'm not sure how it was down state, but it sure seemed like it rained nearly every 24 hours or so for months. Too much rain. A lot of nesting cover was under water or just too wet for nesting pheasants.

Things have finally dried out up here. I'm hoping for some late nesting birds to pull through. We'll see. There's still enough birds out there to get it done.

Late last winter a client called to inform me that he had a dozen flushes within his food plots. That was just west of McHenry County.
 
Last edited:
Been seeing good numbers of quail on roads in clark county and Lawrence county. Of course in areas where there is good habitat.
 
Good too hear about the quail broods. Thank you.

Any news on pheasant broods in Northern and central Illinois? Adult birds too?
 
Last edited:
Talked to a farm buddy in Crawford County yesterday who flushed a covey of quail while combining. Said most were so small they could hardly fly.
 
Said most were so small they could hardly fly.

Boy those are young birds for October.

This past week, watching some opening weekend (2019) videos online, they've all been showing young birds. Many still aren't fully colored out yet. This could be an interesting season.

"Hen"---"No rooster"' ---"No it's a hen!"---"That was a rooster!" lol

I still haven't had a window to get out and push birds around this area. When I finally get a little time to get the dog out the rain moves back in and it rains all days or two day or like two weeks ago, it rained for three days. Too much rain.

I feel for our farmers. Lord have mercy.
 
Have seen 3 coveys in last week. All were flying good. You can tell some of the birds are still pretty small but look good and healthy.
 
Have seen 3 coveys in last week. All were flying good. You can tell some of the birds are still pretty small but look good and healthy.

I'm not in quail country so please forgive my lack of knowledge on quail, but when you see a covey is there an average number of birds within a covey or does it always very from covey to covey?
 
Usually 5 to 15 birds. I did have a covey last year of 20 plus so not sure if two coveys joined together?? From what I see our average is around 10 or 12 birds in the covey.
 
Back
Top