| | | | | | Quail Hunting - Then and Nowby Tony Kinton
Though quail hunting is becoming more difficult as the birds are disappearing from their original habitat, there are ways you can still enjoy this gentleman’s sport.
Few sounds are more haunting than the bobwhite’s call at sunset. Haunting, but endearing, comforting. These last two emotions are likely by-products of my childhood, when this grandest of all game birds could be heard with great frequency across the countryside that was home.
We were simple farm folk back then. Life was not nearly as rushed and cluttered as it is today, and it centered around a meager existence of crop growing and livestock tending in the red clay Mississippi hills. If wealth were measured in currency, we were poor. But if it were measured in assets such as contentment, love, tranquility and familial bonds, we were rich indeed.
Work was difficult. Nothing came easily from those fields and barn lots, but more than enough did come when adequate effort was exerted. And it was at the ends of those often-strenuous days that I recall sitting on the back porch or in the yard swing or out beside the old pond and listening to the plaintive whistle of quail. Particularly pronounced in spring, a quail’s sound could be heard year-round as these dainty and delightful birds coaxed each other to a mutually agreeable meeting place so they could gather and then huddle, tail feathers to tail feathers, through the night. Their call to sanctuary became mine as well, for like those birds, shortly after the calls were issued I went inside for the evening. There were no worries then -- at least not for my sister and me.
Those calls spoke to my dad and me of good times and full game bags come winter -- and to my mom as well, for what she could do with a pea-patch quail come suppertime has not been matched by anyone I know!
A Bygone Era
Quail were abundant then. On the ragged 80 acres we called home, there were consistently five coveys. Take in some neighboring property, and as many as 10 to 12 could be located on any given afternoon. Several of the men from the area hunted these birds, with each hunter and/or landowner having his particular core on which he focused his efforts. There was some overlap, and that was permitted. Very little of the land was posted. But most of us stayed within some scarcely defined parameters for our quail hunting, and seldom were we, or any of our guests, disappointed.
There were some excellent bird dogs around back then. These were working dogs, and most lounged around the farmyards when not hunting. I doubt there was much pedigree, but the dogs were hunters who knew their game. I must admit this is the area in which I most lacked. Oh, I had a dog, Lady. But she was suspect from the very beginning and did little the remainder of her life to prove otherwise. But she was my friend and my bird dog, and I took great pleasure in her. She could point a quail!
A great many of the hunts that we made in those days were after-school affairs, maybe a Saturday morning from time to time. But never were these extensive outings to exotic locations. More often than not, they consisted of stuffing some red paper-hull shells into a musty and worn vest, grabbing an old single- or double-barrel shotgun, and whistling the dog from under the doorsteps. Quail, you see, were just right out yonder -- there by the fencerow; down there along the ditch that separated the pasture from the cornfield; over the hill there in the broom sedge; out there behind the barn in the dried peas; or maybe just across the fence on the neighbor’s 40 in that little stand of oak trees. The birds were there, and they were always extraordinary, spectacular. Familiarity never made them common.
A New Approach
But things changed. I’m not sure when, and perhaps no one is sure how or why. But change came. It went unnoticed for me, but not because I held no concern. It was unnoticed because life was pulling and prodding in directions away from the land. College, graduate school, new jobs -- all these became the life I knew. When I looked back and desired what I had known, it was not there.
Even the old place was not there -- at least not like it was, and not still in the family. The new owner cleaned and cleared and manicured and sculpted. It was much prettier than I recalled it when my life was poured into its soil, but that improved masking came at a price. The quail were gone, too. And they were gone in large measure from every other place of which I was aware. For every other place had experienced the same redefining as our old farm.
Four or five years back, after a pair of decades with quail as only a recollection, I was fortunate to discover quail hunting that was as close to what it was in my youth as anything could be, outside the totally wild condition that is now difficult to find. This was hunting early-release birds -- an activity far removed from the typical put-and-take shooting done extensively at many venues. This new approach revived my interest in quail hunting, and I have never seen anyone who tried it say differently -- even some of the old guys (like me) who recall with sentiment and regret those days when quail hunting was that simple and almost assured procedure of walking from the house with shotgun and bird dog. These individuals have a benchmark for decision-making, and when they say early release is good, they know what they are talking about.
The practice of early release is as the name implies: Birds are released early! But not early as this relates to a specific day. Quail are released on a hunting property early in the fall, long before any hunting begins. And they are not just cast to the wild with little hope of survival past one or two days. Feeding and call-back stations are strategically located, and the quail have a safe place to rest for the night and ample food to maintain strength. They become quickly and surprisingly well-adapted to the new environment. Wild, these birds are.
Dr. Ed Carruth of Millbrook Plantation in Stonewall, Mississippi, has taken a tremendous interest in the concept of early release in an effort to ensure solid quail hunting on his property. He began with the call-back stations and supplemental feed but has expanded his operation with an eye on improving existing habitat. He uses plots, herbicides and controlled burning in his management scheme, and visitors will be amazed to see the abundance of native plants that are common quail foods. Not only do the released birds frequent such food sources and thrive in and around them, wild birds are now not uncommon. Management is working.
Is the truly wild quail gone? The obvious answer is no, but no one can argue with the claim that populations are not what they once were. Will they ever return? We all hope. But we must also wait and see. Is this practice of early release a cure for quail-hunting woes? Perhaps … at least for right now. Done correctly, it is extremely close to the original. I shall experience it again this fall. Maybe you should as well.
Contact Information:
Dr. Ed Carruth
Millbrook Plantation
1030 Hwy. 513
Stonewall, MS 39363
(601) 659-9922
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