quail recovery?

This is the first summer in 15 years I've heard & seen quail. ( Cleburne county) I listen to them whistle every day I'm at home. Think they are making a come back or did a couple just get lost? Between the cats, yotes & hawks I never thought I would see or hear them again around here.

No comeback on my place in Perry county, even though I have a lot of good habitat. I saw a covey of young birds last summer, but something wiped them out.

I was fishing with my dad at lay lake a couple of months ago and we flushed up a covey.

We had a lot around the house a few years ago. Damn cats started showing up and quail disappeared.

Mine seem to be doing great. We've done a good bit of habitat improvement and I've got several fields planted specifically for the quail.

Habitat but I think hawks are knocking them back around these parts. I had 3 coveys 2 yrs ago, none last year. I had a sharpshin move in, and he wore them out I'd bet. He since has disappeared. Have a redtail that comes thru ever so often.


I've noticed a big presence of predators in areas where we've had quail populations rebound.

Not to mention the eagles playing hell on them too.

What slough were you in and what were you fishing with to flush quail?

Got a pretty good and huntable population here in Taft TN. I jumped a covey not too long ago and those suckers seemed like they were as big as grouse!were as

Flushed a covey yesterday while bush hogging, the pair had 7-9 chicks that flew about 20 yards. Always fun to see em this time of year.

20 ga.



I don't think I've ever seen quail.

Had a lease in Macon county that had to large coveys on it. Seemed like 15-20 birds. Had the lease for 3 years and saw them all three years. Dang if I never hunted them before I lost the lease.

I've seen a FEW over the past 5-10 years. No comeback in my area. I bet you could walk around every day for a year and not shoot one.

A few on my buddy's place in Cherokee county

In north Bama I can recall as a kid hearing them whistle in the evenings at my grandparents' house and I'm 32 now. Other than that I don't have any memory of ever seeing them much in the field, definitely not a covey.

I been seeing and hearing a bunch on redstone arsenal lately. Id say they are thick in numbers on the arsenal. We develop hundreds of acres at a time and see them everyday out there. But not on public land close by. Its funny cause i see a whole bunch of hawks, yotes and a few bob cats in those areas. Im sure they eat their fair share of quail but i see quail a whole lot around there. Tons of turkey with poults too this year.

Robert Trent Jones Golf course here in the Shoals used to have numerous coveys. Haven't played golf in years but recall thinking they should have paid shoots from all the calling I heard.

I have been thinning and burning my pines for several years, have pushed back my wood lines to create buffers around my fields and have planted summer crops for the last two years and the number of quail has exploded. Just got back from a two week trip up and flushed birds just about every day just messing around doing habitat work. Saw my first big covey, probably 14+ birds bushogging lanes in my corn/bean field. It helps they also clear cut the 200 ac west of me last summer and it is prime habitat for them right now. Every morning I could hear multiple birds in several different areas.so at least in my case it they did respond to the habitat improvements.

I love/live for making mine and my neighbors farms more appealing to wildlife. Glad I'm not alone

Oh you are not alone for sure. Not as much discussion on here about habitat as some of the forums but I spend way more time, money and effort feeding my critters and making nice places for them to live than hunting them. Also have gotten where I actually like watching them way more than shooting them, except in the case of a buck or so a year. Heck, if I want meat for the freezer I usually just invite someone to hunt and tax them half the doe.Just got back from almost two weeks up there and all but two days were spent on the tractor or with a sprayer, chainsaw or brush cutter in my hand. One main chore was clearing around the base, spraying, fertilizing and summer pruning 87 fruit/nut tress I have planted for them and me, not that I counted.

I was far back in Waxahatchee creek and the where on the edge of the creek on a high bank.