Snyder, Texas Update

I made the 1,000 mile trip to Snyder from Georgia. I had a good day. The conditions are super dry. There was a grass fire West of town today. I found 4 coveys of bobs and 1 covey of blues. Dogs had a hard time but did extremely well in these conditions.

Sorry about the blank posts. The first image went through fine. I was trying to posts pictures of my dogs on point.

Don’t give up now always like looking at pictures. A Super dry day hunting still beats a great day working.

Nice!

Thks for report, keep them coming

Finally success. I have to downsize better to make these go though!

The blues were on the other side of this brush pile. I guess wanted to stay near the camper on the left. It looks like that had been there for a while.

Going to try again tomorrow.

That was a nice covey of bobs.

They were but to but. Did not move.

On the roost?

Those were great pics. Wow Georgia is a long way. It's good to see you out hunting wild birds. Looks like your dogs had no trouble.

Do you hunt penned birds back home? I'm just curious cause I sometimes wonder if to much hunting penned birds can make my dog less effective on wild birds.

The covey with the close dog picture was found at 10am.

Thanks Wacm! It is a long way. I have been coming out here for 24 years (I am 48). We have almost zero birds in Georgia.

I did train these dogs myself on pen raised birds. This was their 4th trip out here (2 each of the last 2 years). It took them a few days to get it, but once they got into wild birds it was like a light switch turning on.

I enjoy it because I grew up hunting wild birds in Georgia. They disappeared in the late 1980's in our area (west central Ga). So, I started coming out here.

I hunted hard again today, but the wind got me. 3 coveys found. All bobs. 5 birds in the bag.

A lot depends on the pup. I trained Cracker on pen raised birds. I've never seen her intentionally put a wild bird in the air.

Today's birds. Beautiful!

Bill -- I agree with you totally. It also helps to spend a lot of time with them and make them pets. I have raised mine since 3 months old.

Glad you made the trip and glad the dogs are getting on a few birds.

Awesome.
I live in eastern N.C. , our birds disappeared in 94 ,went from 25 coveys on a good day 15 on a bad day to nothing. I blame it on fire ants and lost of windrows. don't no for sure wish I could fix it. Forrest

I really believe fire ants are a major part of out bird loss, Forrest.

I grew up on a 500 acre dairy farm. We planted corn and sorghum. My dad always left the fence lines wild and left a 30 yard wide strip around the edges of what we planted. The birds left back then anyway.

I hope they never get fire ants our here in this part of Texas.

Have you had any boll weevil eradication programs in your area? When they started spraying for boll weevils was about the time our numbers started dropping.

No Sir. We never had that sprayed on my farm. The quail habitat was the same.

We have never had the insecticide for boll weevils sprayed on our place, but it was used heavily in the area in all directions.

I have been part of a quail research group affilliated with TTU for several years now and I don’t think it has ever been proven that fire ants ever took any considerable toll on quail at least not to the numbers that hawks, vermin, and land fragmentation or repurposing did. I encourage you to obtain any of the books or studies that have been published by the Tall Timbers Quail research group for the SE US. They have made monumental strides in re-establishing quail in that area of the country. Food, cover, and vermin eradication are key to the success.

Fire ants got lot's of blame in NW Louisiana and SW Arkansas but in reality it's just not the same country it was when we had lots of birds. We had no deer and plenty quail. As the country thickened up and the deer became plentiful, quail began to disappear. There just isn't anything much for them here anymore. Ants have nothing to do with it.

ARandy,
I grew up quail hunting the same areas of La. and Ark. as you. If you remember in the’60s, there were a lot of free range cows in the woods and bottoms back then that kept much of the undergrowth eaten down back then that created a quail haven that pretty much kept all of us in birds, I remember one day hunting in the Red River bottoms after school with my Dad in front of a weather front and pointing over 20 coveys of birds. Days like that from yesteryear never leave your memory. People now in Texas have always asked me where I learned to shoot so fast and true. Right there in the woods of NW La. You had to or you would go home broke and hungry.

You know how it was for sure NorthTXbirdhunter! I grew up in good bird country and still live in the same place but nowadays I Thank God for west Texas.

Amen

Nice group of Bobs ! Blues run too much for dogs , when me and my friend use to hunt we drove down dirt roads on the McElroy ranch at Crane Texas . They run alot across the roads . His wife drove and we sit in the back snd when we saw a covey running we would get out and try to catch them in a brush pile they usually would go in on one side and out the other . Never got more than 15/day . Now he passed and I’m too old to run like that .