The decline of Bobwhite quail has had more tax dollars spent trying to find the answer to the problem than any other wildlife species. Billions have been spent by state and federal agencies on research projects and habitat programs through USDA. It’s time to throw in the towel IMO. There’s a remnant population where habitat will allow. If private landowners want to do habitat work, that’s great, but quit throwing tax dollars at a species that hasn’t responded to the billions that have been spent on them over the last 30 years. The answer will never be found.

I fear we will be in the same boat with eastern wild turkeys within a generation.

I think you're wrong when it comes to Turkeys, they seem to thrive around people and in cities.

I met a guy in the late 90's, who raised a lot of bobwhite quail, who established a huge wild population of bobwhite quail near Tralfalgar, Indiana. What he did was probably illegal. He trapped wild bobwhite, using domestic call birds in funnel traps. He raised the wild bobwhite for 3 years, until he had a huge number. He forced them to lay more with light and got them to go through 2 and in some cases, 3 laying periods a year. He trapped, shot and killed all the predators he could. He ran miles of electric fence, low to the ground, around habitat he built, on his and neighboring properties.

He released huge numbers of bobwhite, all of which he banded. He trapped his breeding stock every year from bobwhite that overwintered on his property. He had the best quality bobwhite and pens, I have ever seen. I wish Ohio would do something similar.

Keith

When I bought my property 20 years ago there was a large covey of wild quail here,

This 150 acre fa was cut into 10 tracts and sold.

The quail did well the first few years I was here even

With all the snakes and hawks.

Then the city folk bought a tract or 2, brought in their

rescued horses and their feral cats.

I watched in dismay how the wild quail population

descended, I heard a couple last spring, didn't hear

anything this year

My city neighbor has a 2 acre pond, he complains

all the time that his pond must be bad water

as he has to restock his pond every year.

Nevermind the otter crossing on his spillway

https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/fo...predators-to-increase-quail-populations/

article on quail and predators.

Note key point

"There is no scientific evidence demonstrating that predator management in the absence of adequate bobwhite quail habitat will produce birds. Conversely, there is a wealth of scientific evidence demonstrating that habitat management will significantly increase local quail populations in the absence of predator control. Simply put, no habitat equals no birds—no matter the amount of predator management that is accomplished."

More studies show that Coyotes are good for Quali populations along with Pheasants too.

https://nri.tamu.edu/blog/2018/june...and-the-mesopredator-release-hypothesis/

From Pheasants forever, "like Phesants, Thank a Coyote."

https://pheasantsforever.org/BlogLanding/Blogs/Pheasants-Forever/Like-Pheasants-Thank-a-Coyote.aspx

I sincerely hope you’re right. On a personal basis, turkey mean a heckuva lot more to me than quail, however I hate to see any native population of any wildlife decline so drastically.
Turkey do seem to do well near people in many places, but that is a small portion of the overall population. In many states, turkey are still relatively “new”. States who have had turkey populations for 40 years or more are seeing the steepest declines.

Kansas has a decent population of quail and a good populaton of rabbits. They also have a healthy predator population. Coyotes, cats, skunks and raptors. Owls and red tails take their share. I see raptors on near every high pole and old homestead lots. So they make it there by running cover to cover, hedge row to hedge row.

I doubt Pa. will ever have many native reproduction birds like pheasants or quail. We had some decent nesting agriculture habitat when I was a young man but the state ruined that here locally.

I have a small 8-15 bird covey on my farm. I don't hunt them just enjoy seeing and hearing them.

I hear the call once in a while so theres a few around, but I havent seen one in a long time. When I was a kid there were 3 or 4 places on the farm you could always walk up on a covey of 30 or more. As mentioned above, I dont know how they make it thru the hawks watching. I watched a redtail nail several voles while I was cutting hay yesterday.

I'm sure the large number of fire ants we have in the south don't help any ground nesting birds either.

Lots of research on fire ants and quail from Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahasse, FL.

Charles, if it was easier legally to ship wild quail, I'd be more than happy to trap some for you and your area. My uncles town is overran with them. The hawks eagles coyotes etc... can't keep up with turning them into dinner.
Everytime I go there I almost run over several and see at least 2-3 dozen

Your quail are not our bobwhite quail, are they?

New Mexico has bobwhite, Gambles, blue scale and Mearns quail.

Keitn

Charles, the Northern Bobwhites are in Eastern NM. Hardly ever there.
My uncle's has both Gambles and Scaled quail.
Montezuma quail is in sw area. I'm familiar of locations of these but not as thick or maybe I'm just not there often enough to notice the density.

Bob Jameson, your wrong.

Here where I live numbers are way down over what they were . Have little bullfrogs but no big ones. Bobwhite are rare, I havnt heard one yet this year. Muskrats are scarce, mink are scarce, prairie chickens about done for, and rabbit population is lower every winter. When I moved here in 81 all those things were common. It was easy to shoot 10 rabbits in two hours. find 2-3 coveys of quail without a dog, sit and let chickens fly over of an evening. Summer time like this lightning bugs were thick. Kids could put 20 in a jar in half an hour, then let it sit on their dresser till morning. Havn't heard a whipperwill in I dont know how long. I did see a scissor tail bird about 2 months ago. Meadow larks are getting fewer also. Dont hear them much anymore.

Fertilizer pesticide and herbicide. Can argue all you want but kill all the bugs and stuff starts declining. Kill all the weeds, guess what? Same thing. Meanwhile that stuff gets in the water. We have all heard the experts say no harm is being done. Probably the same experts who say freedom causes gun violence. Overpopulation. Its why the soil must be forced/manipulated to overproduce. Look at what life is like in parts of the world with the highest per square mile human populations. Time to tax people at a higher rate everytime they procreate, not give them more other peoples money for reproducing. We have plenty now but at what cost? Population explosion is real and a real problem.

https://theconversation.com/7-5-billion-and-counting-how-many-humans-can-the-earth-support-98797

Even here in the mountains we had several covey's back in the late eighties. Best habitat I saw here was overgrown, old farms. I haven't heard one in I don't know when.