When I was a boy in southeast louisiana in the 1940s and 50s, I spent a lot of time on my grandfather's farm during the summer months when school was out. One of the favorite things I remember is sitting on the big back porch at dusk and listening to the Quail(we called them Bob-Whites then) calling. Their call sounds something like a whistled "bob---white". Sometimes there would be a dozen calling from all directions in the fields around the house. Walking around the fields, we would frequently walk right up on a covy and they would scare the devil out of you with their flapping!!. My dad and grandpop would hunt them in the fall with an old scruffy mixed breed pointer that pointed as many rabbits as she did quail, but they would always get their limit with little problem. Years later, in the 1990s, I visited the old farm , then a neglected area with a couple of new houses built on the property. It was a late summer afternoon and I listened for an hour, but heard not a single "bob---white". In my grandfather's day he plowed the land by mule and on each edge of each field, he would leave a 20-25 foot swath untouched, he always said "so there will be a bird or two for us when the leaves turn, and a bunny or two this winter". He never owned a tractor---
Reading from a March, 1938 brochure that would become what we know as the Wildlife in North Carolina magazine, is a quote from Rupert E. West--" The modern farmer using tractors and farm machinery tries to utilize every available foot of acreage on his farm. Therefore, we don't have the wide hedgerows and cutover thickets that once were numerous and offered excellent protection for quail"
In North Carolina(as well as most places in this country), wild quail are extremely rare now. I have seen a few in the brush near Mattamuskeet and around Pungo lake here in the east. You can contract a quail hunt in several places where they will "plant" pen raised quail for you to flush with your pointer.
I am very fortunate that I can still recreate those early memories of that old Louisiana farm and listen to quail on late summer afternoons as I did this past Saturday--- I can visit the Field where caring people still farm the old fashioned way--and guess what!??--the wild quail are there and calling--"bob--white"---- See a few wild quail pictures below taken last week.
Reading from a March, 1938 brochure that would become what we know as the Wildlife in North Carolina magazine, is a quote from Rupert E. West--" The modern farmer using tractors and farm machinery tries to utilize every available foot of acreage on his farm. Therefore, we don't have the wide hedgerows and cutover thickets that once were numerous and offered excellent protection for quail"
In North Carolina(as well as most places in this country), wild quail are extremely rare now. I have seen a few in the brush near Mattamuskeet and around Pungo lake here in the east. You can contract a quail hunt in several places where they will "plant" pen raised quail for you to flush with your pointer.
I am very fortunate that I can still recreate those early memories of that old Louisiana farm and listen to quail on late summer afternoons as I did this past Saturday--- I can visit the Field where caring people still farm the old fashioned way--and guess what!??--the wild quail are there and calling--"bob--white"---- See a few wild quail pictures below taken last week.
RSS Feed