tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5497932746752236877.post5408531791397510588..comments2013-07-10T06:51:20.860-07:00Comments on Home Range: Grassland BirdsHenry Chappellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18013645114503780931noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5497932746752236877.post-40446195178334117272007-06-21T13:38:00.000-07:002007-06-21T13:38:00.000-07:00Matt, the areas here in Texas that still have lots...Matt, the areas here in Texas that still have lots of quail also have lots of avian predators. I've never bought the predation theory so beloved by hunters who really don't understand game bird ecology - and who want a handy excuse to kill predators. Yes, there's a lot of predation, but given good habiat, quail are very prolific. If a skunk or badger destroys a nest, the hen will try again and again until she's successful or runs out of time. <BR/><BR/>I think you'll be catching quail around Amarillo for a long time yet. I don't worry much about them on the plains, where there are huge, unbroken tracts of excellent habitat. But at the rate they're declining, bobwhites may be extint in much of the the South in a few decades. <BR/><BR/>What a shame.Henry Chappellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18013645114503780931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5497932746752236877.post-90007744478746640952007-06-20T14:05:00.000-07:002007-06-20T14:05:00.000-07:00Henry I hunt 6 months a year, 4 or more days per w...Henry I hunt 6 months a year, 4 or more days per week, in potential quail habitat in Louisiana. I have flushed exactly one covey in 10 years. <BR/><BR/>Reports from longtime residents routinely include bobwhites as part of the local fauna. And a friend from New Orleans used to hunt them within the city limits in the 60s.<BR/><BR/>Being from North Florida and South Georgia---big traditional quail cultures---and a former researcher on a quail predator (the Cooper's hawk), I can tell you that even encreasing avian predation (theorhetically documentable) can't hold a candle to habiat destruction in accounting for declining quail populations.<BR/><BR/>If our subdivisions and stripmalls don't kill them, our vast, efficient monocultures will clean up the rest. <BR/><BR/>I catch a small number still in Amarillo and hope they can hang on up there!Matt Mullenixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11198069782508775543noreply@blogger.com