quail habitat

I read an interesting quote the other day by one of our greatest American presidents, Thomas Jefferson who said,"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everyone stands around reloading". I liked that a lot, and it kind of reminds me of our state of affairs at the moment.Thanks to our near record setting rainfall this summer, we are breaking out our brush mowers for the first time in several years. Each driver will be issued a compass and machete before heading in to the river bottom courses in case his tractor breaks down. We have waited this late to begin our woods mowing because we have such an abundant hatch of native quail, and did not want to destroy any nests if possible. However, if we do not start now, we are going to make the chicks much more susceptible to predators. It's a bit of a trade off, but we think the time is right to begin.
 We had our first harbinger of fall at the first of this week. The temperature dropped into the mid 60's, and there was almost no humidity in the air. Cader IV and I almost always ride out to the shop together to meet all of the men at 7:00 am each morning. Our dog kennels are only a couple of hundred yards from the gathering area. When we pulled up to the shop about 185 dogs were just barking to beat the band. I turned to one of the men to ask him if he knew what had them so stirred up. He said," Boss, they feel the same thing in the air that you do. They're just getting excited".
 We are all beginning to feel the anticipation, and have picked up the pace a bit here. It really hit me when our first shipment of Beretta Silver Pigeons arrived today. We made the decision to switch from the Ruger as our house guns to the Berettas this year, and will have all new rental shotguns. We figured that we could pay for one new gun this year with gas savings from having to run out to the hunting courses to replace malfunctioning shotguns. Don't get me wrong here. The Ruger is a good shotgun, but ours had gotten old, and Ruger could not replace them with new shotguns in time for the start of the 2013-2014 hunting season.
 I started this blog with a quote, and would like to end it with a quote that every
 According to the Farmer's Almanac, we are going to have a colder than normal fall and winter in the southeast. We are ready for it ! quail hunter can appreciate.One of the great outdoor writers of my lifetime,Robert Ruark, once stated,"You will rarely find a dedicated quail shot who is not a pretty good guy. He has to be a nice guy because he is performing for the benefit of the dogs,himself,and his companions,and all are experts in the detection of fraudulent behavior in the field".

Bird dogs

Well,it's that time of the year when we start filling out our dog rosters with purchases of bird dogs to supplement the ones we have trained here at Riverview. In some parts of the country they are called pointers,setters,shorthairs,etc., but here in the south we simply refer to them as bird dogs. And there is only one bird that we are referring to--the illustrious gentleman Bobwhite quail.
 One of my first of many jobs when I first returned to Riverview was purchasing bird dogs. That lasted until I bought a dog from a lady trainer who was wearing the tightest pair of hunting britches I have ever seen. When I returned to Riverview with the dog, Pop asked me what the dog's name was. When I couldn't remember, he transferred me and gave that job to Mr. Bobby Sharp.Bobby has been retired for years now, and our head dog man,Moss,is doing a great job of dog haggling.
 I love dogs, and feel sorry for anyone who has never known the love of a good pet or hunting dog. It is a very special bond when that pet you love is also a working dog. The first dog that I ever trained was named Bimbo. Well,it would probably be more truthful to say that Bimbo trained me. I was 13 years old, and he was a puppy from a good bloodline.Pop kept 150 acres around the house that he would not allow anyone to hunt on except me and Bimbo. During hunting season, I would jump off the school bus,whistle up Bimbo,grab my trusty 20 gauge single shot, and go quail hunting. Bimbo had two peculiar quirks that I never could fix. If I killed a quail in thick brush, he would go retrieve it every time. If ,however, the bird fell in open ground,he would just sit and stare at me until I picked the bird up for myself. He also only gave me four misses in a row before he would turn around and trot home. Talk about pressure, but Bimbo was a stern critic of my youthful gunning ability.
 One of my favorite bird dog stories also was one of life's great lessons for me. My Dad was one of the greatest wing shots I have ever known. He started letting me hunt quail with him when I was around 11 years old. Pop always had great dogs, and he rarely failed to double on a covey rise. Then he would turn to me and ask,"Did you get one?" to which I would respond,"I dropped one over there." so off the dogs would go looking for a non-existent dead bird. This went on for about two hours when finally Pop leashed the dogs,sat down on a stump,looked at me and said,"Son,there are two things in life that I detest--that's a liar and a sorry bird dog. So I'm fixing to shoot these two sorry dogs that can"t find all of your dead birds."Of course,I confessed promptly and learned a valuable lesson--if you are going to lie,it had better be a very believable lie.
 Hunting season is just around the corner!

We are the proud guardians of the most baby quail chicks that I have seen on Riverview in many years.. Evidently, our full court press with our mamallian trapping program this spring is really paying dividends.Of course,almost perfect timing on our rainfall and great nesting cover has been a plus also. Every time Cader IV and I leave the office to go to the sweet corn fields, I buckle my seatbelt because he slams on breaks so hard when he sees the baby quail crossing the road that my rather prominent proboscis almost goes into the windshield..
 Those of you who visit here from mid-October until Thanksgiving may well be shooting AT as many native quail as early release quail this season. For some reason, native quail are not able to read our boundary signs indicating that Riverview is a commercial hunting plantation. They are no better at sign reading than our deer are at reading the "no wildlife allowed" signs posted around our sweet corn fields courtesy of our idiotic federal government.

I remember my father telling me a story years ago about a very hot day in south Georgia. He said that he was plowing corn with his mule. It seems that it got so hot that day that the corn started popping. The old mule thought it was snowing and froze to death. Well we had a day just about as hot as that yesterday here on the plantation. We are in the midst of our sweet corn harvest; so we are all having to stay out in the fields a good bit. The temperature/humidity index hit 113 degrees at 2:00 pm. When you add about two trillion gnats swarming around your face to the opressive heat, it's safe to assume that we were not happy campers.
 Many of out guests look at these beautiful facilities located here along the flowing Flint River and ask us why we do not operate an off season business. To which I always respond,"you have to be a native to survive South Georgia in the summer time".
 While the farm crew is trying to draw all of the gnats in creation to the field, the conservation crew is steadily planting food plots for the quail. We are seeing so may pairs of quail lately that we have had to institute a speed limit on our woods roads. After experiencing several years of spring and summer droughts at Riverview, we decided to plant a drought resistant sorghum in many of our food plots this year. Guess what? Ronnie bogged down three times yesterday on the lead tractor and harrow that makes the first pass over the ground! Go figure. I think that we guess the weather around here like I do the stock market. If I buy it,you should short it if you wannt to make money.

After abundant early spring rainfall,the clouds dried up in south Georgia for a while. We have finally received enough rainfall to begin planting food plots for the quail. We are also beginning to see some amorous couples of quail beginning to pair off, and know that nesting season is upon us. Since we had one of our best spring,controlled woods burning program in years, we just need to make certain that there is plenty of food available for the next cycle of quail on Riverview.
 We are also in the process of ordering shotgun shells for the fall. I do believe that the ammuntion makers are working overtime making bullets for pistols and assault rifles. I wish that they would get more concerned about starting up production of shotgun shells for the wing shooting public. While I am certain that we will have plenty of shells in stock, I feel much better when they are in my storage room rather than a promise that I will have them.
 I wonder how many of you know how the origin of our "gauges" in shotguns and shells began. Everyone knows that the larger the number of the gauge, the smaller the shell while the smaller the gauge,the larger the shell. This methodology began when shotshell lead equalled the the diameter of the shotgun barrel's bore size.The number of lead balls of a particular size that totaled a pound in weight determined the gauge of the shotgun. A twenty gauge shotgun would have 20 lead balls equalling one pound while a 12 gauge shotgun would have 12 balls per pound.
 After the gauge of the shotgun is selected, then the shot size needs to be chosen. In the south if we say that we are going "bird hunting", you can always assume that we are talking about quail. My personal preference on quail has always been number 8 shot. I do not shoot a 410 gauge anymore because I am not as good of a shot as I once was. Come to think of it, I'm not as good at a lot of things as I once was, but I sure am grateful to still be able to enjoy the sport of hunting. But, I digress. If I were to shoot a 410, I would go with a 6-7.5 shot size.
 Stay tuned for more thoughts later on as the summer progresses. We will  talk about bird dogs,shotguns,and funny hunting stories in the future.

One would think that as you get older, you would require more sleep. I seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Of course, the moon was almost full last night, and I must be part vampire because I never sleep worth a hoot on a full moon. I got up around 4:00 am to gaze at that beautiful moon and reflect on life in the country at this time of year. We have enjoyed one of the most pleasant springs in years in South Georgia. Watching the moonbeams sparkle and dance on the flowing water of the Flint River made me pause to give thanks to all of the brave men and women who died on foreign soils to protect our way of life. We honor those folks this Memorial Day weekend.
 Let us never forget the price of freedom and the sarifices that were made for us to enjoy our way of life !
 Now to our activities at hand. The quail are becoming amorous, and have begun to pair off for mating season. Since young chicks consume a lot of protein in the form of insects, we are primarily creating soil distubances and little plots to attract the bugs. I must say that there is rarely a shortage of insects and critters at this time of the year in our part of the world. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we enjoy such high quail populations. Our major food plot plantings will most likely start in the next week or so depending on the rain. We are ready to go, and our woods look great right now thanks to abundant rains and a very successful control burn earlier this spring.