Managing for quail?

[tjm]

28 minutes ago, Ketchup said:

bluestem, etc.

Ain't bluestem one of those native grasses that we are encouraged to grow?

 

[Terrierman]

20 hours ago, BilletHead said:

            Good/not so good. Can we find something less invasive like strips of native prairie? 

You can but back when there was a lot of multiflora where we hunted, it was an old reliable.  Cover and bare dirt under the multiflora is a winning combination.  

[Ketchup]

14 minutes ago, tjm said:

Ain't bluestem one of those native grasses that we are encouraged to grow?

 

It is great nesting habitat and encouraged by wildlife biologists, but on my last farm it didn’t seem to help as there were lots of river bottom areas that were used and provided better options. If planted with other cover, it does have its place. 
 

I was hired to brush hog 70 acres of pasture this summer, and the big bluestem heads were 7’ tall and thick. I mean thick. There was an area that was over run with it that birds would have had a hard time using it. 

[BilletHead]

19 minutes ago, Terrierman said:

You can but back when there was a lot of multiflora where we hunted, it was an old reliable.  Cover and bare dirt under the multiflora is a winning combination.  

                Believe me I remember those days and talk about rabbitat (rabbit habitat) good grief there was some great hunting. Habitat and predatory management would do wonders for everything. 

[fishinwrench]

Whatever it was that lined the railroad tracks, power line crossings, and took over the strip pit spoils of Boone, Audrain, and Montgomery counties was the best Rabbitat and Quailatat that I've ever known.  

Pretty much just briars, blackberry thickets, sumac, poison ivy, and assorted saplings.    Farmers had nothing to do with it. 

Matter of fact.....the further you were from anybody's farm, the better the hunting usually was.   And when I was a youngun all of that land was open to whoever wanted to be there.    

[Basfis]

There was a lot of CRP that expired and rolled back into AG with the biofuel push. CRP was great for birds. Switch grass near row crop was killer habitat. 
Fescue, competitors (turkeys) and predators are hard on quail. Decent CRP ground provided protection from all 3. 

[tjm]

From my view rain is the thing that hit quail the hardest, other than fesque.  Wet nests chill the eggs to death from the bottom and wet anytime within two weeks after hatching will chill the chicks to death. I had a lot more predators when I had quail than I have now and in 40 years or  so that I was aware of them the predators never kept the quail numbers down at all. Three very wet years in a row took out all my quail and turkeys both. Of course that's just opinion based on observation, and it may be the armadillos that wiped the birds out because they showed up right about that same time and multiplied rapidly.

[Ketchup]

I typed in “why did Missouri quail numbers decline” and these 2 popped up. I did go ahead and read both articles. Both “habitat and predators” were both the biggest reasons for decline, with predators being the main factor. Without predators being in check, quail can’t survive to a decent population, but can survive without better than good habitat. I could only begin to think of how many birds in general “young” are lost yearly due to predators. Bobcats alone can play a major roll in an area. Factor in all of the other animals that love eating young birds, and I’m surprised we have as many as we do. Quail/turkey are at a huge disadvantage VS tree nesting birds, so we see their numbers decline to a much larger scale. 
 

Maybe scientists can twist the quails genetics and have them nest in trees. 

[Ketchup]

As per the posters question, here is the last paragraph of an article. 
 

Information on quail and quail-friendly land management practices can be found in the MDC booklet “On the Edge: A Guide to Managing Land for Bobwhite Quail.” This free publication, which is available at the Department of Conservation’s Southwest Regional Office in Springfield, covers topics dealing with quail and quail management. Quail information can also be found at www.missouriconservation.org

[BilletHead]

29 minutes ago, Ketchup said:

I typed in “why did Missouri quail numbers decline” and these 2 popped up. I did go ahead and read both articles. Both “habitat and predators” were both the biggest reasons for decline, with predators being the main factor. Without predators being in check, quail can’t survive to a decent population, but can survive without better than good habitat. I could only begin to think of how many birds in general “young” are lost yearly due to predators. Bobcats alone can play a major roll in an area. Factor in all of the other animals that love eating young birds, and I’m surprised we have as many as we do. Quail/turkey are at a huge disadvantage VS tree nesting birds, so we see their numbers decline to a much larger scale. 
 

Maybe scientists can twist the quails genetics and have them nest in trees. 

                Bingo Ketchup just what i have been saying. Plant good habitat and get predators in check.