Recently in BobWhite Quail Category
A pinched nerve has rendered me as a spectator for the time being (what timing eh??). Heard an excellent report from Garza County, decent reports from Tom Green and Coleman counties, and sobering reports from Shackelford and Jack counties.
My covey contacts at my lease in Coke County seem to have dropped off considerably since mid-September; hopefully just a figment of my imagination and a product of mucho cover.
Please keep us all posted with your quail sightings.
This summer will mark the 13th year of the Bobwhite Brigade Wildlife Leadership Camp. The original camp (held at Krooked River Lodge north of Abilene) has been cloned to include 5 other camps (South Tx Bobwhite, East Tx Feathered Forces, 2 Buckskin Brigades, and the newest Bass Brigade). Applications are now available for youths interested in attending this summer's camps. See www.texasbrigades.org for application forms and more details.
There's plenty of opportunities for adults as well. If you're interested in the best 5-day shortcourse on quail management available anywhere, sign up as a "Covey Leader." And it doesn't cost you a penny (if you don't count lost sleep!). You'll eat like a king and hunt with good dogs. Applications available at the website.
Tuition for cadets is $300; we're always seeking sponsors for cadets, so if time precludes your personal involvement, but you want to help out, consider making a tax-deductible donation to sponsor a cadet from your area.
But we especially need your assistance in identifying and recruiting top-notch cadets (youths 13-17 years old). The camps typically have 10 girls and 20 guys, but I hope to have 15 of each at this year's Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade. If you have a potential cadet that might be shrugging their shoulders and thinking "why would I attend a 5-day camp where all they study about is a dumb little bird", let me know and I'll have some of our past cadets contact them. It's a great learning opportunity.
If some of you are interested in the Covey Leader role, let me know and I'll have some of our past Covey Leaders chat with you (or perhaps they'll post a reply here).
As I clean quail, I always dissect out the crop contents to see what the birds have dined on for their last meal, if anything. Yesterday (Jan. 2), I cleaned 18 birds taken from my lease in Coke County. Greens were the order of the day, followed by seeds of broomweed. One quail had a dozen or so mesquite beans in it.
During a recent trip to Hollis, OK over the holidays, most of the birds there had consumed "quail pea" (trailing wild bean). Some crops I looked at from quail in Clay County included seeds of chittam, hackberry, and a lot of seeds of green ash (these resemble broken toothpicks).
Check out the website below for images of key seeds found in quail crops. I'm always interested in expanding this photo library, so as you come across seeds that aren't represented, send me some samples and I'll get them photographed and posted. Mandy Currie, a student worker for me, uses a magnifier lamp and a digital camera as a quick way to getting some useful seed photographs.
"And what is a weed but a plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walk into nearly any County Agent's office and you may see a poster on their wall depicting the "Common Weeds in Texas Pastures." At times I'm tempted to take some correction fluid and change the title to "Key Food Plants for Quail." "Weed" doesn't have to be a four-letter word.
If you're a cotton farmer, plants like johnsongrass and pigweed (carelessweed) probably don't engender much admiration. If you're a rancher, plants like buffalobur, broomweed, and western ragweed don't pay the bills. But if you're a bobwhite, these plants (and other unmentionables) are on your Top 10 list on the buffet.
First, do no harm.
The same oath subscribed to by medical doctors should shape our prescriptions for managing quail habitat. Think critically about your thoughts, goals, and actions for improving quail habitat on your property.
As you read the following, ask yourself if the proposed activities work more to the good of quail, or to the good of the quail's various complement of enemies. Caveat emptor: I'll admit that much of the following reeks of speculation on my part, and is therefore certainly arguable. Consider them food for thought.
Seems this may be a hard candy Christmas for some quail hunters. While most of us are caught up in a quail of plenty, I continue to hear laments from some veteran quail hunters. The area in questions tends to be from Coleman County on northward to Shackelford County. Stephens and Callahan counties may be the epicenter.
If you hunt in those areas, please update me with your quail hunting. And by all means, if you see weak, dead, or apparently diseased quail, let me know immediately; try me on my cell phone at 325-650-0311.
All seems to be well on the western front, and I hope it stays that way!
Last August, I made the trip from San Angelo to Lubbock to deliver my daughter Krissa to begin her odyssey at Texas Tech University. Big Spring is about the halfway point, but the world isn't bilaterally symmetrical around Interstate 20. Between there and San Angelo, the world is basically rangeland, above that demarcation it's basically cotton. If your world revolves around quail like mine does, you can find similarities between quail and anything. Let's pull some bolls.
Cotton is king in Texas. The bobwhite is the prince of gamebirds. So what do these "crops" have in common besides royal bloodlines?
