View Full Version : Seeing alot of wildlife!
I only have about 5 acres. It is in the middle of the woods though. I have burnt every inch I could. I burned the leaves in the hardwoods, and the open fields. In the 10 days since, you wouldn't have believed how many turkeys, possums, coons, deer, ( a huge buck, plus some does), bees, wasps, and all manner of little animals I have seen. But no quail. Am I doing something wrong? Most of all, I would like to see some quail, at least wander through. I plant many things, but nothing yet. Where are the quail. When I was a boy in Texas, I could kick up 20 coveys a day. Then fire ants came, and in my part of Texas, the last few years, I never saw a wild quail. What happened? Other than Roundup.
Oh yeah, it can't all be fencerow clearing. We used to kick up quail in the cutovers, woods, and thickets, not just brushy fields.
Oh yeah, it can't all be fencerow clearing. We used to kick up quail in the cutovers, woods, and thickets, not just brushy fields.
One problem may be that there is no "seed" for them to grow from. Quail will travel for long distances to populate an area, but they may not have found this either. What is surrounding your 5 acres?
Mostly hardwoods, with a sprinkling of cedar thickets here and there. Just wondering, if I release some purchased quail, will they revert to wild? Saw 5 jakes also in the burn section next to the house.
Mostly hardwoods, with a sprinkling of cedar thickets here and there. Just wondering, if I release some purchased quail, will they revert to wild? Saw 5 jakes also in the burn section next to the house.
Just turning birds loose will probably not work.
Something that a few have had luck with is placing breeding pairs (while hen is laying) out. Do this in June, you may have some luck.
Thats a good idea, I think I will try it. Thanks
b1jeremy
03-22-2005, 05:32 PM
where about in lawrenceburg? i have 15 acres there and have jumped 2 small coveys on our land...i may be able to help ya...
kycowboy
03-22-2005, 05:34 PM
I saw about 50 turkey in a field today:D
elkguy
03-22-2005, 06:51 PM
Thats a good idea, I think I will try it. Thanks
Save yourself some time and effort. Figure out how much you would spend releasing birds. Write out a check for that amount and mail it to me and make it out to the RMEF. I'll then send you a thnk you letter. You will have just as many birds this way as you would by actually releasing them and you will have more time to go fishing.
Whatever.
I spent a total of $18 for 3 breeding pairs. They established 1 covey of 20 plus. Birds are still there.
elkguy
03-22-2005, 09:18 PM
How long ago was that? I have personally released about 30,000 birds on a couple of properties in SC and GA. A few birds hang around for maybe up to a year, but they won't last. Every bird we released was banded with the year of the release on the band. Numerous studies trying several different techniques have not demonstrated an effective way to do it.
However, I do wish they were like turkeys. Just open the box and voila!
Birds were released in setting pairs 4 years ago this coming June. The hens had been laying for a couple of weeks before release and eggs removed each day. The cocks and hens were placed in good habitat on 3 sides of approx 50 acres.
The following winter Handgunner and myself found (actually my dogs found) a roost pile that looked of about 6 or so birds. The 2nd season I found a roost pile that looked a bit larger. The same day at opposite ends of farm, I busted up a covey of 20 plus birds. This past season, I had one flush of birds from where the big covey came up. They busted up in front of me and I actually do not know how many. Opening day of deer season I flushed up 4 birds in a different location. Seems the birds had already been busted. They flew up over a 200' plus fencerow.
I will agree with your 30,000 birds and no coveys. We have put out probably over 20,000 in the past 10 or so years at the BGSL. We have sawed off chickens running around as hawk food. There is one covey that has formed from this multitude and sustained over the years.
As for the setting of the pairs. There are 3 people on here that have had success in this technique. I have not, nor I will not introduce anymore pen birds in this area, for the unknown factors. If a pair of birds do hatch and survive, you have wild quail. The birds I have fly harder and faster than anything I have shot in Kansas or Nebraska. Also, if this covey sustains, there is a very high probability of the original pair die-off. You are now left with birds that were bred, hatched and imprinted upon a single tract of land.
Talk with Birdman, he has data with almost a 80% success rate. Mine is 33%, possibly 66%, for I have not located the 2nd covey again.
While I too do not see this as a cure all and a viable means of complete re-introduction to the Bob white, it is a means that works, if nature is allowed to run it's course. Meaning you must have sutible habitat to start the project and the breeding pair must have enough parential instinct to survive. There was no suplimentel feeding, watering or any other care given. It was strickly a live or die propisition for them. The ones I worked with survived.
elkguy
03-23-2005, 08:43 AM
It sounds like you have some habitat there. How do you know that those birds you have are not wild and might be there anyway?
Where I have dealt with penned birds we had some survival of adults for up to a year and a half but we had very little successful breeding. I know we had some because one day in May of 2000, I witnessed a cockfight between 2 cock birds, one banded one not, and then watched the unbanded cock bird copulate with a banded hen. Of course the banded bird was a lot bigger than the wild bird, but the wild bird had more grit.
If we could just clearcut and repeatedly burn 3/4 of the woods in KY, and if about 1/2 the farmers in KY would win the lotto and let their fields go fallow, we would be in quail fat city.
As for the wild birds. My dad still lives on the farm and the fields I spoke of are withing 50 yds of his house. He is an old time bird hunter and neither of us has seen or heard a quail there since 1978. He kept dogs into the 80's and I have had dogs up there for the last 8 years.
The summer after I placed the quail, we counted 7 roosters calling in June. It may have been a fluke and wild birds moved in at the exact same time in the exact same location. Whichever the case, you can hear athe assembly call almost evey night.
If you place a cock and a hen in a barn or pen in late spring they will start the nessting and the cock will become protective of the territory. They will revert to a wild (at least wilder) stage than birds placed in a large pen with several birds.
The birds I delt with were older birds that had not been hevily imprinted too.
elkguy
03-23-2005, 10:50 AM
This is nice. We are talking about wildlife and we are not calling each other names, or questioning motives and agendas, or being rude to one another. Maybe we can start a trend?
It ain't hard to do, someone will pull the pin though.:)
elkguy
03-23-2005, 11:10 AM
I'm not usually a gun-shy-type guy. But heck, sometimes I am even scared to log in to check private messages.
Back at the ranch.
If you have an area that could/would/should hold quail and you believe there is none there, give the process a try. It will only cost you $10.
If it works good, if not not much lost. I don't reccommend pulling 2 birds out of a large pen and tossing them out. But if you can seperate a pair in a barn or pen with some cover, let them acclimate, start the nesting proceedure and them release them, there is a chance.
There are jakes in the burned area now. I also am seeing a bunch of bluebirds, they are eating something. Deer are eating some rye that has come up. While it is low still, I am going to roundup the fescue and plant some bluestem, and gamma grass. I don't know what kind yet. As to sending in my money to the RMEF, yes it is a good idea.
Dangermouse
03-24-2005, 07:20 PM
No offence to Mr.Elk , but if I am going to waste my time and money. I would rather waste it on something I have odds of getting to hunt .
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