Seeing any quail on your dove hunts?

Bill, I saw 5 big coveys on a 1000 acre place east of Lampasas that typically has no birds to speak of. Its the first seen there in several years. It makes the heart smile.

I'm not seeing any dove on my dove hunts.

went out last night to a friends ranch near my home. I've never seen so many quail in my life. Had to be nearly 500 we saw in the span of an hour around a decent size tank. Not much water out there so they must have been concentrated in that area because we'd walk and bump out so many the ground looked like it was crawling and they were HEALTHY.

I saw several pairs at separate times along the road to my lease in Murray. Also spooked a covey of 10 or so on the property. I didn't see any last year, so I'll take it as a decent sign.

Probably one of the best years I have seen in a long time. Seemed like they were everywhere the last trip to the ranch.

Busted 2 coveys in one of my fields. One huge 20 bird and a 12 bird. First I've seen in couple years.

looking good W and SW of Uvalde...
more blues close to Eagle Pass... BW's back towards Uvalde.

Coveys we were busting had over 50-100 per. I'm sure I won't see that again when season rolls around lol.

Flushing 25+ coveys a day just running around the pasture I lease. And that's without driving around during peak morning and evening times of day because I'm in the field or over water.

What county?

I see a couple of coveys every time I've gone out hunting the past two weeks.

Dove hunted Sweetwater area last weekend. Heard quail in every direction. Saw coveys is every field. Had a covey walk out of the tree line within 10 feet of me on Saturday morning (about 15 birds). Covey flew over my head later Saturday morning (6 birds). Had small covey run in front of me in a different field Saturday afternoon. Saw about 10 pairs in the road and saw 2 large coveys in the road (20 to 30 birds) driving back Saturday evening. The most birds I've seen and heard in 15 years of dove hunting in Sweetwater.

Ozona, FtStockton?

Hueco Tanks by El Paso

west of Salt Flat... and El Capitan...
hwy 60/180?
dahm... I been thru there...
I guess too long since...
any Gambrel's?
there are 4 species of quail native to Tx...
but finding a Mearns and the fact there's no open season for them make for a tough bucket list...
between VH and the Captain is a ranch I hauled cattle to/from

This will surprise you, because it came out of virtually nowhere:

Shackelford

not surprised at all...
seen lots of quail between Abilene and Childress..
been 25yrs since I was thru there, tho...

From 7-8:30 PM (last week in August) I flushed 32 coveys, and never counted the same one twice. If there was any doubt, I counted it as one. In reality, that number was a good bit higher than 32.

Saw several Cooper's hawks yesterday evening, they must have heard about the lofty quail numbers. As they usually don't show until November / December.

By surprised I mean because that particular county didn't have a ton of carryover birds, like Fisher/Mitchell/Coleman Counties. Shackelford county in particular has as volatile of a quail population of any of the Rolling Plains Counties: it's either off the chart good (2000-2004) or really, really bad.

none in Haskell

We are covered up in quail, even have a covey or two that hangs out in the yard at camp.

My 15 or so quail seem woefully disappointing now!

We flush a covey or two of about 20 everyday we go out. Talked about harvesting a couple this year.

Gamewarden in Haskell was in the truck and showed me the quail survey from Abilene to spearman.

Highest counts since 86