Why is it for the last 10 years and more the loss of quail has been blamed on everything but rain. All this extensive research looking for an answer

Now the shift is that rain is the sole answer

Because no one really knows

Rain has always been a known factor in Quail survival. I haven't heard anyone say that rain is the sole answer now either.

There's a place at Ft Hood called the impact zone and its loaded with quail and horny toads. There no farming or people there .So everything is still natural with all the native grass No herbicides or pesticides are sprayed there

You can get a permit to hunt Fort Hood. I hunted it one weekend years ago. We never found the impact zone. Another group of guys hunted up in the cedars and had decent luck.

We have quail out the wazzu in good years not so many in bad years.

We are located in south texas and our property is surrounded by approx. 2k acres of irrigated and herbicided row crop. We do not have fire ants and we have found the occasional horny toad. We have more hawks owls babcats and coyotes than you can shake a stick at. The biggest thing that fluctuates our quail is rain.

I also believe having no fire ants have something to do with it.

Nobody allowed on the impact zone its off limits

That is for your own safety. As a youth I have been on the impact zone hunting many times on a base that will remain un named. Some of my mentally deficient relatives have, on more than one occasion, taken un exploded mortar rounds an threw them off of a rock ledge attempting to detonate them. There is a reason Darwin had some merit . . .

Heard many a story from about the Foot Hood Impact Area from my grandpa, who was a Ft Hood guide back in the 60s and 70s. Never heard many quail stories, but I know there have been some monster deer come out of there.

Interesting bit about the quail. Never really knew they were out there.

Stop to Flush on this forum lives near there. He takes his own birds at times.

In 73 we bivouacked in the impact zone. I think I was stationed with some of your relatives. They would throw rocks at unexploded ordinance. I was in 2nd Armor, we had more guys run over by tanks than blown up.

I have an uncle who hunted Fort Hood in the late 70'S and early 80's quail all over.
my cuz. found a belt of live 50 cal there

I have hunted Fort Hood since 79. I have seen some very good years and some poor ones of late. I used to hunt the impact area and I have had more fun out there chasing birds than you can shake a stick at. As Salley Sue said it is unchanged and the Natural Resource folks tell me there are a good number of birds out there. I'm whistling and heard birds in a lot of areas. Does my heart good!! I have a new pointer that will be a year and a half when bird season opens. Bought him from a good hard working trainer named Mike Burbo. I just love it I really do!! Come on November!!

Rick

Rain is a huge factor. Traffic at my place in Big Lake is NOT. Got more O&G traffic than you can imagine. Pipelines being run everywhere. And 6 or 7 rigs running all the time. Horned toads everywhere. Quail everywhere.

What the hawks and other predators and fire ants do is exaggerate the effect of drought. And they REALLY exaggerate them in some areas. Other areas they don't have much effect (probably due to natural non moisture dependent cover etc.).

Predators and deer feeders make the natural population fluctuations from drought more severe and harder to recover from.

Ya'll remember my hawk thread. People used to kill every hawk we ever saw and could get a shot at. And we still had population fluctuations from moisture... but they weren't severe enough to get even notice in the really good quail areas. The high hawk populations in conjunction with deer feeders where quail come to denuded areas to eat corn have greatly exaggerated the old mild fluctuations.

Pesticides and farming and oilfield traffic don't affect quail and horned lizards much at all in my experience. In fact, farming actually helps more than hurts in MOST situations.

I believe rain is factor numero uno. I see lots of quail in south texas in the spring and they die in the summer when we don't get rain.

Yep. I see good numbers from spring thru summer. Just like you. And then I watch the Harris hawks gang up at the feeders and lay waste to all the quail that were raised that year.

I believe rain is #1 factor for Spring numbers-then a lot of other factors come into play for Fall survival.

Since quail numbers in east TX fell off of the cliff virtually all at once back in the '80s I believe there was a single factor at work-I'm guessing fire ants but IDK.

1980 was a wicked weather year for Texas. We had a late hard freeze, followed by a record-setting heat wave, and drought. Same year hurricane Allen.
I myself think mother nature plays the biggest roll in the quail decline.

Rain,Food,Cover (the right kind of cover)as for as East Texas goes fire ants can be part of problem but Bill has posted a picture several times on here that show a field in South Texas that you can't hardly walk for the fire ant mounds and they are finding quail in that pasture. East Texas use to have people farming 75% of their land. Today you find coastal hay meadows everywhere very little farming and pine tree plantations. The varmit population is running wild (Coons, possums, fox,Hogs, and the worst cats.) I have a piece of property that was perfect for quail that I raised several quail in a surrogator. Some survived for several years.People with adjacent properties were seeing them but they seemed to disappear. I haven't done it in about 3 years but last year I had six young pups that I trained on my place in October and had about 30-40 birds left that I turn loose. In the past I had built some big cages so I could put feeders in that would hold two to three bags of chick starter for the birds I had released. This year I had found an old feeder that was on the bird lease I have that will hold about six quarts of food and the birds stayed around the feeder until this spring when I only saw a pair. I had put a camera on the feeder.June 7 The rooster and hen was back with baby chicks. I know I have always been told pen raised birds may nest but will never hatch the chicks. I live south of Tyler. I only saw 5 chicks. We will see how long they stay. And yes I do have fire ants. Sorry about the long post.....

Great post Whoa. You're doing your part it seems, to try and rebuild the population.

The summer of my 8th grade year (Sophomore in college now) I had the opportunity to go to a pretty neat camp, The Bobwhite Brigade. I had the opportunity to learn from some of the most knowledgeable folks in the field including Dr. Dale Rollins in this particular subject. Rain is without a doubt the number one factor in the decline of quail numbers. Possibly a close second place would be the lack of cover. If quail could just plop down in a cactus plant on a fence row their lives would be much easier, but the cover has to be perfect. Predators travel the fence rows too much and they need 360 degrees worth of entrances and exits to escape the predators and cover from the top to protect from hawks. I could talk all day on quail. Most of you most likely already know all this, but just thought I would share my experiences and knowledge. What better subject to have your first post on too.

Welcome to the forum.

I can tell you one thing it's directly responsible for......the price of beef.
Herd sizes are way down, calf prices are sky high.
No water, no cows.

...but I digress...
You probably noticed that the areas that received moderate to good rainfall last year had a much better quail population then in previous "dry" years.


Hello.