Some years are brilliant here. Back in 02, you could get your bag in most stubbles within an hour.

One day, we shot 196 in the day, and horror of horrors, I put the story about it in Feathers and Fur. I should have been clearer about the number of shooters as some gun writers went on for a while about people shooting wheat bags of quail.

A couple of days after shooting ourselves silly, the quail left.

As we all know, one day more quail than you can imagine: the moon changes or whatever, they are gone.

But at the moment, no quail, no duck.

and the farmers are rightfully pissed that it has rained so much when their hay needs bailing.

We have quail here as well. I was walking home one morning and come across about 20 of the little buggers. I could of thrown a cast net over them. I've also had them burst out of the grass at my feet. Scared crap out of me

Hardly see quail at all in the last twenty years around here. Perhaps it is use of herbicides and pesticides, or just different farming techniques???

NitroX,

Your point is more valid than you might think.

This African DG thing is new for me - Quail hunting is not. I hunt an average of 40 days a year for Desert Blue Quail here in Texas.

Interesting thing: We found out that just north of us here in West Texas the counties that have extensive Cotton crops have experienced serious declines in populations over the past several decades. Habitat destruction = tillage and the use of pesticides is positivcely the culprit. Down here, where we chase cows for a living there is no use of pesticides and the same agricultural practices that promote abundant grazing for our cattle also help our birds. Thus my point about your observations.

As for Texas quail, this is the best year on record out this way for birds. Has been building for nearly a decade and we think we have to be at peak. Come over and go shooting with us sometime!

Jeff

Nitrox,

As Jeff has stated. You are dead on. Here in the states we are seeing loss of northern bobwhite quail. A huge study was done. It all boils down to loss of habit. As urban sprawl increases one of the first animals to go is the quail. They are very sensitive to changes in the habit. Unfortunately, at least in case of the northern bobwhite, releasing captive bred birds is not the answer. Of 1,000 captive birds release, less than 20 will be alive a year later. The only answer is the preservation of the habit.

GBB,
Kyabram/Shepp region: Lots of ducks. Woodies on their 3rd clutch, grey and chestnut teal/blackies on their 2nd clutch. Plumed whistling ducks about too! Hare numbers are definately up too, and with the recent rain and waterlogged areas ... we have snipe about.
Quail... not many yet, but they are about. Last year was excellent Echuca through to Benalla/Wangaratta.
Cheers...
Con

quote:

... we have snipe about.

Damnation!

I hope some of those end their lives prematurely (natural death, of course, being stupidly and unrealistically protected - ffffing Japanese greenie bastards!).

Had a go at woodcock in the UK and they fly damned fast. Rockets.

We live opposite a lake in our town.

Usually, has heaps of duck on it but not up to the usual number.

It also gets more than a few snipe dropping in too. Some years, very few; other years, a fair heap. Its a piy our Season has been closed for so long.

Would be no chance of it ever reopening. A pity. I just hope they don't decide to ban our Quail or duck season!

I agree with you, Nitro. More snipe would die in the overseas countries they visit through lack of habitat that here in Aus.

quote:

Originally posted by NitroX:
Had a go at woodcock in the UK and they fly damned fast. Rockets.

NitroX,

The record on our shoot is 7 shots at one woodcock without it ending in the bag!!
that was last yearand the previous record was 6 shots...

Woodcock can either be the easiest shooting or the most difficult depending on the terrain.

I have 2-3 days chasing them about in a couple of weeks. Can;t wait.

FB

The woodcock we shoot at were in a fairly thick forest during a pheasant shoot.

Never seen a snipe in SA yet.

The headers (harvesters) have been out and going 24 hours on mainly barley around here. No reports of any quail.

Bushchook, same in WA?

No green pick at all in most paddocks.

Hi all,
most stubble gets treated with herbicide, as already stated, but we had the time of our lives in the 2005 season. We stopped wasting time, and concetrated our efforts in the grasslands and it paid of handsomely. Dried lakebeds were also full of Quail with occasional flights of 30-40 birds getting up of their own accord and moving to other areas without provocation from us.

Tasso

What type(s) of quail do you guys down under have?

Here I see a definate correlation between the decline of predators and the rise in coveys on our farm. When we first leased it there were no wild birds.
But after 5 years of killing every damn possum, coon, fox and cat that we can call in, spotlight, or smoke out, we now have 2 large resident coveys on the tract. The habitat is the same. The food plots are the same. The farmiing techniques are the same. The only difference is the war we have waged against everything else that is trying to have quail for supper.

Bad thing is we have put so much effort into getting them that now we don't want to shoot them. We only shoot pen raised birds, but I occasionaly work my dog with the wild ones.

Nothing like walking in to yur deer stand at 5:00 am and stepping into a covey of birds.

Hi Crowrifle,

Here in Australia, we have three types of true Quail and several button quail species that look similar but are different as they have only three toes on each foot rather than the usual four.

Only two types are hunted these being the Stubble Quail (Courtnix pectoralis) and the Brown Quail of which there are two races, one on the mainland (Courtnix australis) and the other in Tasmania (Courtnix ypsilphora).

Here in Victoia, we are able to hunt only the Stubble Quail, with a daily limit of 20 during the 3 month period.

Tasso

You are right about the herbicides. And finding them elsewhere, like around dry swamps.

Harvest is in full swing here and a few farmers are reporting seeing odd patches of them.

I went out and looked at one place; had a lot of "milk thistle" and cape weed where it hadn't been sprayed.

And saw probably 40 quail in a half hour walk (without a dog).