East Texas quail, when and where did you last see any?

[Sippy]

I had one in my garage last year on lake Tyler, but I’m pretty sure he was an escapee from someone.

[DapperDan]

One of my best friends I’ve known for over 30 years sent me this the other day. Sitting in a tree at his house just outside of college station


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BrianL]

One covey on my place, one time about 10 years ago in Lamar county. Never hear any either.

[El General]

I saw one Bob white on the side of a county road near Clayton around 2008. I have no way of knowing if he was wild or released. I heard some whistling near Henderson one morning in the mid nineties. Same deal, don’t know if they were wild. Other than those, it was in the early to mid seventies when we still hunted them here.

He was almost certainly wild. Released quail rarely last 24 hours in the wild.

[texan16]

Sitting on the back porch in the evenings I can hear some whistle out in the pasture every now and again. Some still around, but nothing near like it used to be.

[El General]

Many of the causes have been listed, but a huge one in East Texas is slash pine plantations. Native loblolly/longleaf pine has been timbered off and replanted with slash pine which changes those forests from ideal quail habitat to ideal mesopredator habitat. Mesopredators (middle size predators like raccoons) are very efficient nest predators of ground nesting birds).

National Forests and national preserves have more native habitats than most private land and that is why those places still have some quail.

I did have access to a place in the late 90's to early 00's that had three or four coveys on a half section in SE Texas, but I'm not sure there are any still around. They didn't get hunted.

I'd rank the hierarchy of quail loss in East Texas in tiers:

Tier one: Habitat loss (includes improved pasture replacing native grasses, slash pine replacing virgin Loblolly/longleaf pine, development, other timber practices like clear cutting, and the lack of fire on the landscape)
Tier two: Nest robbing predators/low fur prices. Raccoons, skumks, possums, snakes, and, hog populations are all booming. Tier one contributes to tier two.
Tier three: fire ants/pesticides/herbicide use. Quail chicks diet is something like 75% insects/25% plant matter.
Tier four: Raptors.
Tier five: Grazing practices.

Turkeys face the same problems as above. The big difference is that Turkeys that survive to adulthood have many fewer predators than quail at adulthood. They are also individually just hardier birds.

There is an East Texas Wild Quail Restoration Facebook group that has some interesting articles and info from time to time.

As far as the tiers go, unfortunately, unless restoration begins with tier one (the most costly, difficult, and slowest tier to recover), mitigating the other tiers isn't very effective without habitat restoration. Loblolly/Longleaf pines take a very long time to reach maturity (200 years is what I remember, but my memory can be wrong). Converting improved pasture back to native pasture is a much shorter time period, but it is still measured in years and requires vigilant maintenance once accomplished. Prescribed burns to encourage edge habitat, successional forest, and forb growth is the easiest to implement and is probably step one for all of the tier one issues.

As far as TPWD, there is research going on with wild capture and relocation of bobwhite and blue quail right now at the Rolling Plains Quail Research Station. I think that research could yield results that can jumpstart restoration in areas with the appropriate habitat or where habitat restoration has begun.

TPWD has also worked with some landowners to try to establish populations of California Quail. My opinion is that we should have learned our lesson by now that moving species around to replace native species always has unintended consequences and is generally a bad idea. I think TPWD's focus should be on landowner education and habitat restoration. But, long term projects that cost alot and are unlikely to yield results are really hard to sell.

Turkey restoration nationally jumpstarted when they finally figured out that pen raised birds don't work for restoration purposes. Turkeys also had a very effective national advocacy organization in NWTF that helped tremendously with funds, advocacy, and interagency cooperation.

Quail don't have an effective national advocacy organization like NWTF. There is Quail Forever and they do good work, but they don't have the reach or scope that NWTF have. I think this is partially because quail hunting is largely a rich man's sport now and that we are a couple of generations past when it was common for ordinary working class rural folks in East Texas (or anywhere in that ecosystem that stretches from East Texas to Georgia) to keep a couple of bird dogs and hunt quail. While rich folks can fund intiatives, it takes broad based popular support to really get things done.

One positive to habitat restoration for quail is that it would be very beneficial to both turkeys and whitetail, so there is some hope that we could coattail these two very popular species towards restoring habitat that quail can thrive in.

[Redfeathers]

All the above and I can remember when coons were bringing 25-30 dollars. Possum, skunks and jackrabbits were $1. We would have a truck load before the night was over. I think coons and skunks are the main players in eating quail eggs right? I know hogs will as well.

[El General]

All the above and I can remember when coons were bringing 25-30 dollars. Possum, skunks and jackrabbits were $1. We would have a truck load before the night was over. I think coons and skunks are the main players in eating quail eggs right? I know hogs will as well.

Everything eats quail eggs, but recent research shows that coons are the most frequent nest predator. They really target quail and turkey eggs. It is so bad, that the current recommendation is to let coyotes walk because while they will eat quail eggs they don't target them, but they do target raccoon kits and foxes in general.

[Drycreek3189]

Panhandle nailed it on their decline. Habitat loss is by far the biggest factor, primarily Bermuda hayfields. Bermuda is too thick, the chicks can’t move around in it and hide.

When I was a kid and young man, East Texas was covered in quail. We were also covered in farmers who left fence rows and fallow fields where weeds grew. Weed seeds are a primary food for quail. Coastal bermuda and behia grass won’t feed quail.

[jay07ag]

Saw a small covey of 3-4 in the Angelina NF in the early 2000's

Also saw a single bob sitting on a fence post somewhere between Austonio & Lovelady around that same time (early 2000's).

[Kelmat]

Me and my daughter saw one quail when we were climbing out of a draw on our lease in Houston County about 6 years ago. First one I had seen in probably 30 years. (grew up in Rusk County)Haven't seen or heard one since.

[JRL]

Jasper in 1999. We flushed one while walking in a clear cut dove hunting. Quite the surprise!

[Shinesintx]

Hogs are useless vermin and one day they will outnumber deer in lots of areas. They may already.

They absolutely outnumber deer in Franklin County.

[Paycheck]

Not east Texas but last year saw a few coveys in Hamilton County. Maybe with the price of herbicides and pesticides we might get a little natural cover back.

[swamprabbit59]

Saw one in out in the country in Athens back around 2003 or so. Heard it whistling, whistled back and forth with it a few times and it just flew down out of a tree and landed at my feet, so I assume it was a pen raised bird


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk