So we did the early youth quail hunt at Matador again this year. It was not pretty...

Five dogs logging over 75 miles on the GPS. We hunted morning and evening Saturday and this morning. Only three small coveys moved.. one was only 4 birds. One of the coveys flushed way ahead of the dogs, so we should really only claim two moved.

We talked to Chip, the biologist for the WMAs in the part of the world. He said Gene Howe was about the same.

I think there were only two other groups out for the youth hunt. We talked to one of them on the way out out, and they had not fired a shot in two days of hunting.

I follow them on Facebook and know that their annual quail population surveys have been way down the last 2 years. Got drawn for a doe hunt a few years ago and never saw a single quail while there.

I don't have a FB a/c, but can still see their page, and this is the WMA's survey result this year:'
"Matador Wildlife Management Area - Texas Parks and Wildlife
September 28 at 8:37 AM ·
We have wrapped up our roadside quail counts and numbers are up slightly from last year but not by much (1.95 birds per mile compared to 1.28 in 2019). They are still a far cry form our record numbers of 12.43 in 2016."

To the OP: it's still fun to be out hunting, birds or not. That's some wild beauty ya'll got to see. Beats sitting here in front of this computer!