First Sighting in East TX

[Drycreek3189]

Raccoons, fire ants, hogs, bobcats all give quail a hard time. Rarely see them in La. or East Texas like I used to. And, I hunt near briar patches and thickets that quail and woodcock used to thrive in.

In addition to that, they can’t eat pine trees, bahia grass, or bermuda grass. The biggest loss was the farm country. Farmers use to have fallow fields full of weeds, quail eat weed seeds. There are not nearly as many doves in East Texas as there were when I was a kid. Difference between doves and quail is ....doves migrate so they can go where the feed is. Quail don’t. We used to quail hunt all over East Texas and they were pretty plentiful, I miss them.

[PassnItOn]

Hunted Angelina county for years. We used to walk the wind rows on the clear cuts and wear them out. Were plenty back in the day but the day was 40yrs ago.

[oktx]

In addition to that, they can’t eat pine trees, bahia grass, or bermuda grass. The biggest loss was the farm country. Farmers use to have fallow fields full of weeds, quail eat weed seeds. There are not nearly as many doves in East Texas as there were when I was a kid. Difference between doves and quail is ....doves migrate so they can go where the feed is. Quail don’t. We used to quail hunt all over East Texas and they were pretty plentiful, I miss them.

This has hurt the population more than anything.

[BrokenJ]

My mother in-law has some
At her bird feeders on the jasper Newton county line. Outside of buna. She had a nice covey two years ago at their gate.

[RifleBowPistol]

I am pretty sure TPW is stocking and or restocking them all over much of the state. I know where I used to live in Guadalupe County, there were zero quail for many years, then one year, I had a covey of young quail come up in the yard. They could not have been more than a couple months old. I think there was about 12 of them, no mature birds with them. After that year, I started seeing more and more, we eventually had about three coveys of quail on the place. I have seen the same thing in multiple other areas. No quail for decades, then all the sudden there are quail. The only thing that makes any sense, is they are being reintroduced by the state or someone else.

[twistedmidnite]

I doubt they made it but I used to hatch bob whites to eat and every so often id lhave15 or 20 get loose. I'd see/hear them occasionally.

[SRK14]

My grandfather used to hunt them hard in miller county Arkansas, just a few miles from cass county line. He always blamed the fire ants for their disappearance.

[jamenefee]

I’ve seen them once in Nacogdoches county a couple years ago. I’m pretty sure they were released by tpwd. They release a lot of turkey close to where I spotted the quail

[Slaunch]

Parents live in Crockett and they had 1 loan bob white quail in their back pasture for about a 2 week time span about 4 months ago. I was kind of surprised to see him there but I didn’t think to much of it at the time.

[El Paisano]

Used to be lots of them. Land use changes took away their habitat. Changes from small farming to bermuda, bahai, and other turf grasses. They need prairie bunch grasses and interspersed areas they can get their feet on the ground.
The short answer to having more is sunlight and prescribed fire.

[gander]

There were several properties around Jefferson/Chambers County that I would see a covey or three each time I went out to them about 15 years ago, have only seen a handful and very seldomly since then around here.

[smokin feathers]

Use to have a lot here n Sabine n Shelby co n still see some here n there. I remember sitting on porch swing with my grandpa in spring early summer n he would whistle them up n they come right into the yard

[PlanoDano]

Quail, Pheasants and others are in decline no matter where you look. In the plains, Texas, Kansas, Ok, NE habitat loss is the main factor. Round up resistant crops contribute to the habitat loss.

[wtr2019]

I've come across a few coveys in Rusk, but few and far between

[redfishted]

When I was a kid 1970s, we hunted them on our places in Madison and Leon counties.