We've chased covey's on our farm for years in the same 45-50 acre lots. In short they would stay in the same area year after year.
We used to have hundreds of birds but now we are down to a couple covey's so I quit shooting them. My father in-law (lifelong farmer on the property) said they had a lot more birds when the locals used to chase coyotes with dogs and horses. He said when the neighbors complained and they stopped doing it the bird population plummeted. I miss those great hunts back then.