Quail in the South

I lived in NC for 41 years. The late 70's and early eighties were good. Very little habitat anymore. You have to hunt the cutovers and they are TOUGH. Very few birds there anymore.
 
I live in the south , still quail here but you gotta work for them. If you can find cover near grain , you have a chance. The problem here is timber value and ag. That is what gets the habitat.
 
I hunted quail once in North Carolina with a buddy . He lived in NC at the time and is a quail biologist so I guess I had an unfair advantage. although it didn't help my shooting on that trip..lol It was a very long time ago but I will tell you a lot of the cover was the strangest I've ever seen. Birds were in the absolute thickest, nastiest, thorniest, flesh ripping stuff they could find.
 
You do find them in some terribly thick stuff here. They are often found in the middle of hardwoods between fields. Those birds will be full of acorns when you clean them. Privet rows are also good quail cover , they will feed on the little purple berries off of them late in the winter. We hunt an area near the North Carolina border where when the dogs go on point , you never know if its gonna be a covey o quail or a woodcock!
 
I have found a few wild birds when I was stationed at Ft Benning. Few plantations have wild quail but at a premium. Most do early release and drop feed several times per week to keep the birds on their property.
 
on the family farm in alabama we have several wild covey's but sadly
I have not heard that bobwhite whistle in a long time
too many bobcats, coyotes, hawks and not much row crops
 
I grew up quail hunting in central Texas. There were coveys along every fence row. Now the ranchers have converted their pastures to coastal Bermuda grass and the birds are gone. It's just a shame!
 
even in some of the famous areas of south Georgia they simply do not have
the wild birds anymore....it is quite sad actually
 
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When it comes to bobs - deep SOUTH TX is still OK to very good some years, while the TX PANHANDLE is about the most reliable last-stand left in the entire U.S. of the truly wild bobwhite... :(

I have done a lot of more southwestern quail hunting around El Paso & across southern New Mexico with great success for blues/scalies & gambels (no bobs). The Desert Southwest is a boom (& I do mean BOOM) or bust (as in TOTAL BUST) game from year to year, depending on moisture or drought...
 
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