Introduction
If you are a returning reader to the blog you may feel like I have already written this blog a while ago when I was talking about pheasant populations and their decline over the past few decades. Many of the same issues plague wild quail populations as well unfortunately. Despite these unfavorable variables going against our beloved upland birds there is still a lot that is being done to conserve these animals to remain at populations great enough for us to keep harvesting sustainably year after year.
If you have traveled to various states within the Midwest or South you may often hear how upland bird numbers are not what they used to be or that some people don’t even try to go out to hunt quail or pheasant anymore based on what they have seen the past few times they have put in the effort. While I will agree that quail numbers were probably good in the late 80’s to late 90’s (I can’t speak on the subject as I was not born yet) the populations are coming back to their days of former glory as now we have various state and federal agencies working hard to keep and create habitat for these species. Outside of managing public land and reserves much of the work being done in wildlife/game populations actually depend on voluntary actions/practices that farmers make in how they manage the land they work on.
I hold a belief that if you give back to the land and “feed the land” via means of restoring parts of its ecosystem or planting things with the intention of it being predominantly for wildlife you will typically see a natural inclination for mother nature to throw a bone your way. This goes in line with various Native American beliefs as well as some Taoist philosophies. If you follow “the way” or the natural flow of things that nature wishes to bring on its own it is typically better and easier to go along with.
I often struggle with this philosophy in some areas as to me humans are not removed from nature (though we often act as we are above it) and frequently wonder if some of the introduced or noxious plants, animals, or diseases are not all part of the natural process. I mean eventually all things will stabilize, but in the meantime I don’t want to lose the animals that have lived with the grasslands much like the beloved quail species.
I know I am getting into the weeds a little bit, but I just wanted to say that for a majority of the conservation efforts made for quail it is no longer a passive means of leave an area “wild” or “untouched” and come back in the fall to harvest your daily limit of quail and leave it alone again. This may have been the case a hundred or so years ago, but since we have stopped letting wildfires burn and have decided to invest time and energy to building homes, raising crops and livestock around many of these previously wild areas we are not so enthusiastic to play with fire as the risk seems to outweigh the reward in people’s minds.
We have crossed a threshold in many areas where the meter on the ecological succession has gone too far and to bring it back to how it was 150 years ago would take a ridiculous amount of time, money, and labor with modern tools and chemicals. It is doable but it is easier to focus on areas that have not been completely lost and are easier to maintain and manage at their current successional stage. We as humans at least in the West seem to have a liking of wearing many hats as every animal or ecological function we remove or change we have to now bear the responsibility of managing or mimicking for said animal/ecological function.
This is why we are just now beginning to see the rise of quail in areas that we previously haven’t, but this could also be the reason why you are not seeing quail in your area. You haven’t been paying attention to what has been happening around you for the past 30-40 years. Change is slow and it is easy to overlook this is why we as humans have a tendency to not worry about things until it is almost too late.
While the world of wildlife conservation is in constant attack and disarray from various non-profit groups, politicians, businessmen and many other factions it doesn’t help that there are differing opinions on what we should do as conservationists to better help quail populations (I will dabble on this in the final point). There are so many variables that have changed within the past hundred or so years that I find it crucial to point them out so that you can better see the picture that we are facing.
1. Higher Human Populations
The first point that I wanted to make understood the land use change here in the United States. I recently read a YouTube comment under a video discussing quail numbers and recall hearing a man describe how he remembers being a kid and seeing way more quail back then than he does now. Now this may be anecdotal for his own experience and his own land, but his observation probably isn’t too wrong in a lot of areas.
I think it is important to understand the change in the American population from the 1950’s to now. The population of humans in the US has more than doubled from 151 million Americans to almost 336 million people today. In the 50’s you had approximately 40% of Americans living in rural places while only 20% of Americans live in rural areas today. This indicates that there was a lot more diversity in regards to what was being grown/raised on the landscape as the countryside was most likely broken up into smaller homesteads which would be sustainable at the time since the demand for high yielding grain production wouldn’t be much of a concern for this time as almost half of Americans were probably growing a decent portion of their food or could trade/buy it locally for a reasonable cost.
Compare that to today (2024) where you have many farmers/producers being stretched too thin to even make a profit after inputs for grain markets. This leads to producers needing to farm or graze more land, take more operation loans to buy even more new equipment just to be able to farm the land needed to make money with the least amount of help possible just to feed the majority of people in the city or the livestock which the people in the city like to buy in the stores. This is a far cry from what life was like in the past 75 years. Instead of having multiple different small homesteads where yield wasn’t as important and everyone was doing their own thing we now have a few tenants or landowners who are farming thousands of acres usually of the same 1-3 crops.
2. Habitat Loss from grain production
With this new land conversion from pasture land on small homesteads or land that was never broken out from native pasture to grain production you end up losing the biodiversity and habitat that the quail relied on. It is a trade off as you are choosing to prioritize grain over wild game which for a majority of Americans isn’t a concern as they probably don’t even know that quail and other upland birds are/were struggling.
It is an unfortunate role for the farmer to take on as many of the new practices such as no till operations are better to prevent against topsoil erosion, but typically rely on a decent amount of herbicide to keep early succession weeds (which upland birds love to eat the seeds and insects of) to help minimize competition with their cash crops. Many of the older farmers I talk to or listen to at work often say that the secret they have found with pheasants and quail is to leave a lot of residue or “weeds” for cover/habitat and to let their fields look weedy/un-kept while also allocating a decent land mass to be enrolled in a CRP practice with high amounts of native grasses, forbs, and native shrubs as well. The same practice or philosophy should be applied when considering planting corn or a sorghum grain/forage mix for birds as well. This can create a manmade pocket of both food and cover for birds in the winter months.
Don’t get me wrong though, no till practices are typically more beneficial than say a bare tilled field, especially if cover crops or crop residue is present, but it can definitely have a negative impact on the environment. Nothing is perfect unfortunately.
3. Woody Encroachment
Outside of habitat loss another area that seems to really push out quail is woody encroachment. This problem has been kind of neglected for a couple of decades but seems to be getting some support in regards to managing and reducing its impact in areas that are still salvageable. This problem is kind of a catch 22 as various species of wild game (especially birds) rely on or benefit from having pockets of thick woody cover offered by trees like Chickasaw plum, American plum, Smooth Sumac, and Eastern red cedar to name a few.
I personally have spooked coveys of quail and bumped ridiculous amount of deer in these thickets and do see their benefit to wildlife when surrounded by native grass/cover. One negative to these shrubs is that without fire pressure or some other management practice they will often spread across a landscape and slowly chip away at shading out the grass around them. This is dangerous as you will begin to lose the diversity that helps keep animals on your land. Shrubs are meant to be on the landscape regardless of what rancher John thinks. If you cannot work with nature to achieve your goals you either are too rigid or are doing something wrong with your land management.
4. Lack of Fire
As I mentioned without fire shrubs and trees will begin to take over the landscape and the once vibrant grassland will become a new growth forest full of ticks and almost impossible to walk through. Fire also helps keep the grassland in different stages of growth. Quail utilize these areas of cover differently at different times of the year depending on the season. If grass is super over grown and thatchy birds will typically utilize this for winter nesting/cover as it insulates them and protects them from the harsh wind, but chicks will not be able to move through this leading to higher chick mortality. Low grass after fire is also beneficial as many birds will take advantage of the easy meals. Each has a purpose and place in the life cycle of a quail (or any other upland bird for that matter).
5. Debatable Reasons
There are a few other variables that people often debate about within the conservation field. A trendy topic that many wildlife researchers and policy makers seem to be debating over is the implementation of medicated feed to treat parasitic worms (eyeworms) which infect quail. It is often debated within the community/research if the presence of said parasite actually impacts the longevity or mortality of the quail.
I am aware that the MeatEater podcast had on a researcher from Texas who has a differing opinion/finding on the matter which I hope to look into further as I am still fairly uniformed on the subject. I do plan on making a blog just on this topic though as it is a popular debate in the given time. Though it is arguable that the habitat in Texas just isn’t as good as the habitat in other states, it just may take a culture shift and time for the quail to come back down there. It is easier as humans to blame things out of our control like parasites rather than accept the fact that modern ag and bird habitat doesn’t always go hand and hand.
Conclusion
Quail are a beloved game bird for both hunters and nature lovers. The presence of their songs in the grassland is both comforting and exciting. You never know what step might end up flushing a whole covey of quail if you are lucky. While numbers of quail populations aren’t where we would always like to see them in every state there is some evidence showing that the numbers are starting to trend up and our conservation efforts are making a difference.
I believe with my entire heart that with enough funding and enough hands we can have both economic and conservation success, much like the Gifford Pinochet wished to have in the infancy of the US Forest Service. Many of the same issues that plague our beloved introduced pheasant often plague other wildlife just as much if not more. Do not give up hope as that is what drives change and promotes a new cultural perspective.