First covey on my farm

kick them up

kick them up

Active member
Well, I have owned my property in NE KS for almost four years now and have never seen, or heard any quail until yesterday.:10sign:

I went to Jeff Co to hunt the Brittany's on a couple of farms I have access to that holds a few coveys. Well we hunted a couple patches and didn't see any birds as it was warm and windy. I had planned on bird hunting and then sitting in my stand that evening to try to fill a Doe tag. Well I got to the stand about 3pm and was sitting there when I heard a quail call out. I thought to myself that I just could be the wind or something as I have never heard or seen a quail within a couple miles from my farm. Another 40 minutes pass and then I catch a glimpse of something moving in the grass 20 yards from my stand. Well much to my surprise it was 10 bobwhites walking in a row into the CPS:thumbsup:

Sorry no pics as I was in a state of shock when it happened.:D

Also my buddy and his friend put up 6 coveys of birds around Horton yesterday. :)

Kick'em Up!
 
Great news. The last time I deer hunted, a covey walked under my stand. That was twenty years ago.

All that walk in area in NE Kansas makes it frustrating when numbers are low. You have to drive right past them to areas with less WIHA. A day trip becomes an overnight trip. Probably the reason NE suffers. Too much hunting pressure from the big cities.
 
That's great
I have been doing a lot of work on my place for quail. Some of it in the Eqip program.

Prescibed burns, tree removal from the pasture, pollinator plot, and I put in a couple covey headquarters.

I have a lot more quail this year. I hope some of it is due to my work, and helps quail numbers in the bad years
 
Congrats on the birds moving into your home place. I think they are on the upswing to say the least. We located 9 coveys on Saturday, didn't hurt any of them, but we did chase them around quite a bit before moving on. Actually saw my old gal "honor" another dog. I have gotten grief from my buddy for years about her not "honoring", which she always has done an alright job honoring, she has never busted somebody else's bird, but usually keeps on hunting to try and find her own. Just couldn't get the picture taken quick enough to file it away for proof. But very happy with the dog work to say the least.:cheers:
 
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9 coveys moved in a day is quite and accomplishment in modern times !!! Glad to here the numbers are solid in your area .
 
Great to hear corroborating evidence about the recovery in quail numbers! Hope the weather continues to cooperate for next year.
 
The covey's I've seen this year have been larger and I feel quail numbers are up, but on one of my places we have only been able to find 1 covey and last year it had 4 on it. I've hunted it twice and 1 time we found a covey, the other time we found 0. I'm not seeing the roost piles on this piece like I did in years past.

I'm hoping the dogs maybe just ran by them or maybe they are on the neighbors ground. I didn't take more than 2 birds out of the coveys last year so they should have been fine. Still has me concerned though!
 
We traveled a bit to where we hunted, but the coveys all had 20+ birds. One covey might have been two coveys together, because there had to be 30-35 birds in that covey. All of our farmer friends out that way said there was more birds around than they had seen in years, still got a few places that we haven't hunted yet this year. Darn kids and their functions keep getting in the way. Then when it's not the kids, then it is raining or the wind is blowing 20+. Hopefully we can get out a couple times over the Christmas weekend.
 
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