Great article from CKWRI.

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/541410/02fe5741a0/1453003329/61993f6df0/

I hunted outside of Hebbronville on the last weekend of the season this year and we had three 10 covey 1/2 days, as noted in the article that was common during Jan-Feb 2014. We shot about 3 to 1 juveniles so that is encouraging. Rain, rain, rain... and I think 2014-15 might have a chance for a good year.

Good article explaining the cycle of our Mr. Bob. It again supports the idea that if good cover exists and mother nature gives us the needed rain at the right times we will see the comeback. I think that the picture painted of south Texas is much like what we see in the rolling plains. Lots of acreage unchanged for 50+ years that can support the comeback with timely rains. But we need this dry cycle to moderate before we see the good old days again.

Great article, thanks for sharing.

Did you shoot 3 juveniles to 1 adult or the other way around?

Good article. Thanks for posting. Hang onto your bird dogs. The bobs will rise again.

That was a very good document First_Chance, and many more available there for anyone interested in improving the quail hunting habitats.

3 juvies to 1 adult.

Here is another good article on predicting the upcoming season from rainfall and rainfalls relationship on the juvenile/adult ratio.

http://www.ckwri.tamuk.edu/fileadmin/user_upload/docs/Quail/PREDICTING_THE_SEASON_Nov_2011.pdf

Thanks for posting first chance....Good to know we have recovered from a bust similar to what we are experiencing currently. Here's hoping for a nice wet spring and summer.

thanks

On a fishing site I use they are talking about an El Nino happening this spring or summer. Their concern is lake levels but would be just what the birds need. Don't have a link to the article but hope they are correct.

Found it.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/headlines...?nclick_check=1

Nice article, however it is not taking into consideration what has been happening north of I10. The line of major decline of quail. I became an avid quail hunter in the late 70's I have witnessed the major decline quail gradually creep west from I 35 and north of I 10. In 82, 83, 84, and 85 I would carry dog to work with me and leave work about 3 and be in quail till dark on a ranch 5 miles east of Bergstrom Air Base. My farm in Burnet had 10 to 20 covey on 900 acres, 5000 acres north of weatherford good for 10 to 15 coveys a day most years.
By 95 the Bergstrom, burnet area was done. Bo 2000 the weatherford area was a thing of the past. 7 years latter shackelford county was basically done. I have seen many good weather years during the period without the rebound in population you would expect.

You look at the decline all the way from Virginia to now the rolling plains and you cannot blame it on the weather!!!! Periodic declines yes, Permanent no.

And raptor and fur bearer populations keep growing and growing and growing.... Pretty simple really.

The important point that the original article makes is that weather and habitat go hand in hand in providing the opportunity for rebound. I know firsthand in the Shackelford area, at least where we are, that degradation and fragmentation of habit is one of the main factors in quail decline. The rancher continues to graze throughout the drought years and the pastures and native grasses suffer so much that one year of good weather isn’t enough to replace the native habitat. In some cases, the native habitat is non existent and will probably never return. Even when the birds get a good year or two, the habitat is trying to recover along with the birds. How often have you seen (and heard) good bird pops early on in July and August just to get to November and can’t find any birds again. The article supports the fact that it is just as important if not more important to manage the habitat during drought years so that when the birds get a year or two or three of good weather, the habitat is in place to return quickly to support the birds and you get a boom in population.

We have a couple of pastures (north of Albany) that have not been over-grazed in the last three years that have held decent native grasses and we saw good quail numbers return this year in those pastures even for as little as we hunted them.

I hear what you are saying because there are plenty of areas that I used to hunt that no longer have birds. Maybe if we could string about 5 years of good weather together it would be a different story, but i agree with what you are saying.
Hopefully the el nino reports that I have been reading are real and we get a good 5-7 year cycle to help turn the corner again.

I sure hope you are right first chance but I am convinced we have a bigger problem then just rain at the right time. I am too familiar with several big ranches that are very well managed and over grazing is not the problem. I have a good friend in Fisher county who remembers the drought of the 50 ties and even though the quail were way down it does not come close to the current situation. My place and the surrounding area in burnet county has more cover now then it did in the 50is and sixties no where near the quail. In the fifties and sixties we were sheep country and pastures were grazed close but we had very huntable quail populations. If you will look at the number of successive days in may and june july of temperatures of over 100 degrees and in those years you have very low reproduction rates even though rain fall totals can be impressive. If addition the article does not discuss what happened we a good hatch occurred and the quail just flat died off in september and october as happened in much of the rolling plains 2 years ago.

I hope you are right and we can get back to basically a weather/rain issue.

I've never argued with the fact that rain and cover are huge. And that with rain we'll have cycles.

But I know for a fact that fragmentation doesn't prevent an area from having incredible quail populations. I know that because Georgia and Alabama used to have great quail populations on land that was/is vastly more fragmented than anywhere in rural Texas. And rain/cover are virtually never an issue in those two states.

When pops were incredible on those fragmented farms they had a culture of coon hunting, fox hunting, possum hunting, hell anything that preyed on quail was shot on sight. That culture has changed.

We will always see fluctuations in quail pops. But I'll bet a large chunk of change that no one alive today will see pops go back to pre culture change/raptor killing law days.

I've read the extinction is a natural part of evolution.