I know we never know what we rally have in the field till we turn the ole dogs loose but all i have seen early and heard and read it might just be a season to remember as a good one.

Fair to good. Pockets of really good.

Southtexas good, rolling plans a little below average, with pockets of above average and below average. Know more mid december.

I was in Robert Lee last week on four hundred acres north of Robert Lee, I'm young and don't remeber the good ol' days but I've never seen that many wild birds. Looked like a very good hatch being as the majority of the birds were smaller then most. Saw 5 different coveys walking a 3/4 mile fence line and each covey had 20 or more with one covey having about 50+ birds.

We are seeing lots of blues in Webb county with a lot more coveys than the past 2 years.

I saw several good coveys up in the Panhandle last week... Should be a good year!

It will be a "quail" of a time! I'm going to South Dakota then up to Nebraska for quail and pheasant.

I think the current dry spell will put more of the existing quail in the pastures vs the fields. The crops are out and the farmers have plowed most of their fields.

Edit: Just got this email from an east Texas friend;

"I’m on a lease in Matador, haven’t seen a bird yet. Lots of cover though and I hear them whistling. Thinking 4-5 coveys a day. Also on a lease in South Texas. Cover and birds everywhere. Counting on 20-25 coveys a day once the cover subsides."

I sure do hope the quail numbers keep climbing in years to come. I just purchased a German Shorthair pointer.

Buddy just came back from 3 days of hog/predator hunting in Dimmit/Kent/Garza counties one 4 ranches and unbelievably saw zero quail. Couldn't believe it. From a limit in 2 hours to no quail in 3 days something is up. Even two years ago we could get 10-12 quail in a day just walking around for a few hours.

The reports like the above are what scare me about the rolling plains, a few good reports but then something like this hits. Dale has his bird dog survey this weekend. It will be interesting what they find. Wish I was going to be there but grandkids come first.

We had a great population of quail on our ranches in Dickens County until about 3 years ago. Don't know what happened to the birds, but spooked 1 covey on 2,000 acres, and that's been with my driving around the last 2 months. On our Crosby county lease, we have some better numbers, but I don't think we will hunt quail there, either, this year.

tkuehn,

Have you seen a marked increase in hogs on the property in the last couple of years?