Seasonal Outlook
Encino, Texas – June 8, 2014
The quail at San Tomas (Encino, Texas) are currently in full breeding mode and have been since early May. We are seeing more pairs and hearing more birds calling than I have heard since 2006. The first covey of small birds we actually saw was around the middle of May. We counted 20 plus spider sized quail as they crossed a road. This last week as I was working in the pasture, I ran through 5 different coveys of small birds that got up and flew and another group too small to fly.
Pasture conditions are still very green and insects are abundant. We have a good crop of croton, sunflower, partridge pea, and cow-pen daisy and other important quail food forbs coming on right now. Follow up rains in June would ensure that the birds will get a chance to renest if they lose their first one.
Things can always go wrong in South Texas during the summer, but I feel we’ll have a good first hatch early enough that even if we get a hurricane in August or September the birdshatching now should be old enough to survive it. Right now, I would give the season a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 with the possibility of a boom year (10) if we get rains in June and July.
The quail at San Tomas (Encino, Texas) are currently in full breeding mode and have been since early May. We are seeing more pairs and hearing more birds calling than I have heard since 2006. The first covey of small birds we actually saw was around the middle of May. We counted 20 plus spider sized quail as they crossed a road. This last week as I was working in the pasture, I ran through 5 different coveys of small birds that got up and flew and another group too small to fly.
Pasture conditions are still very green and insects are abundant. We have a good crop of croton, sunflower, partridge pea, and cow-pen daisy and other important quail food forbs coming on right now. Follow up rains in June would ensure that the birds will get a chance to renest if they lose their first one.
Things can always go wrong in South Texas during the summer, but I feel we’ll have a good first hatch early enough that even if we get a hurricane in August or September the birdshatching now should be old enough to survive it. Right now, I would give the season a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 with the possibility of a boom year (10) if we get rains in June and July.
Encino, Texas – March 20, 2014
The 2013/14 quail season at San Tomas (Brooks County, Texas) was surprisingly good. While we knew we had good late season reproduction (Sept/Oct) and some reproduction in June/July, I never anticipated that the birds would be able to come back as well as they did due to the low number of breeders we brought into the nesting season in Spring 2013.
Average quail outings (3 hour hunt) yielded about 7 covey finds leasewide for the entire season. By January and February those finds were up to an average of 8.5. When hunting our best areas we averaged about 10 on a 3 hour hunt. The last morning of the season, 2 trucks put up 11 and 13 coveys and the late start truck put up 8.
Covey size was as good as I have ever seen (since 1979) right down to the last day of the season. Late hatch birds (Sept/Oct) only had to live 90-120 days to make it to prime hunting conditions during January and February. More normally , May/June hatched birds have to survive for 240 days to make it to prime hunting conditions. Early hatched birds have to deal with predation and covey loss for twice as long as late hatch birds do. With the abundance of feed this year, it is no surprise the covey sizes even at the end of the season were still huge (15-25 birds).
Going into this 2014 nesting season, we have available the largest nesting population of breeders I have seen at Encino since 2008. The early green up of the pastures this spring has alleviated stress on the birds coming out of the winter and likely increase their survivablility into the summer. Their nesting success in 2014 still depends on rainfall and conditions that occur during April-September, but the nesting population is large enough that they could bring us back to historical numbers given a good hatch.
The 2013/14 quail season at San Tomas (Brooks County, Texas) was surprisingly good. While we knew we had good late season reproduction (Sept/Oct) and some reproduction in June/July, I never anticipated that the birds would be able to come back as well as they did due to the low number of breeders we brought into the nesting season in Spring 2013.
Average quail outings (3 hour hunt) yielded about 7 covey finds leasewide for the entire season. By January and February those finds were up to an average of 8.5. When hunting our best areas we averaged about 10 on a 3 hour hunt. The last morning of the season, 2 trucks put up 11 and 13 coveys and the late start truck put up 8.
Covey size was as good as I have ever seen (since 1979) right down to the last day of the season. Late hatch birds (Sept/Oct) only had to live 90-120 days to make it to prime hunting conditions during January and February. More normally , May/June hatched birds have to survive for 240 days to make it to prime hunting conditions. Early hatched birds have to deal with predation and covey loss for twice as long as late hatch birds do. With the abundance of feed this year, it is no surprise the covey sizes even at the end of the season were still huge (15-25 birds).
Going into this 2014 nesting season, we have available the largest nesting population of breeders I have seen at Encino since 2008. The early green up of the pastures this spring has alleviated stress on the birds coming out of the winter and likely increase their survivablility into the summer. Their nesting success in 2014 still depends on rainfall and conditions that occur during April-September, but the nesting population is large enough that they could bring us back to historical numbers given a good hatch.
Encino, Texas - August 28, 2013
San Tomas (Southeast of Encino, Texas) has had from 3-5″ of rain in the last 3 weeks. This rain has been sufficient to green-up our pastures and get the croton (dove weed, goat weed) up to knee high or better. Croton is abundant this year due to the drought and the large areas of soil disturbance created by the dry spring. Sunflowers are barely present this year following the lack of rain during February thru April. We should have a great crop of croton seed to attract doves and feed the quail well into the winter. Recent rains have assured the insect hatches we need to feed quail chicks. Most of the chicks that are already on the ground should have lush conditions to grow under until they get to a half grown state where they can forage on both insect and seed.
The next question is will the August rains spawn a significant late hatch (September/October). From what I am seeing, clutches born early (May/June) seem to have a large number of chicks (15-18), July clutches in general have fewer chicks (8-10). The few August hatched birds were seeing were carrying 2-5 chicks until the rains started (August 11). Just this week, we saw our first clutch of late August spiders with 15-18 chicks.
Although we were still seeing a few pairs in August, most of the males had quit calling in mid-July. My guess is that only 20-30% the birds had nested successfully by the end of July. My hopes are that all the pairs that were giving up in July and early August will go back on the nest and we will see a large percentage (80-90%) of the pairs eventually raise a nest and even get some double clutching from hens that nested successfully in May/June.
If this happens we could see a very significant improvement in bird numbers this season over the 2009-2012 populations. More importantly, we could carry enough birds into the winter to bring a strong nesting population into the Spring of 2014. Two good nesting seasons in a row is what it will take to get our numbers back to normal levels. THE QUAIL WILL RISE AGAIN!
San Tomas (Southeast of Encino, Texas) has had from 3-5″ of rain in the last 3 weeks. This rain has been sufficient to green-up our pastures and get the croton (dove weed, goat weed) up to knee high or better. Croton is abundant this year due to the drought and the large areas of soil disturbance created by the dry spring. Sunflowers are barely present this year following the lack of rain during February thru April. We should have a great crop of croton seed to attract doves and feed the quail well into the winter. Recent rains have assured the insect hatches we need to feed quail chicks. Most of the chicks that are already on the ground should have lush conditions to grow under until they get to a half grown state where they can forage on both insect and seed.
The next question is will the August rains spawn a significant late hatch (September/October). From what I am seeing, clutches born early (May/June) seem to have a large number of chicks (15-18), July clutches in general have fewer chicks (8-10). The few August hatched birds were seeing were carrying 2-5 chicks until the rains started (August 11). Just this week, we saw our first clutch of late August spiders with 15-18 chicks.
Although we were still seeing a few pairs in August, most of the males had quit calling in mid-July. My guess is that only 20-30% the birds had nested successfully by the end of July. My hopes are that all the pairs that were giving up in July and early August will go back on the nest and we will see a large percentage (80-90%) of the pairs eventually raise a nest and even get some double clutching from hens that nested successfully in May/June.
If this happens we could see a very significant improvement in bird numbers this season over the 2009-2012 populations. More importantly, we could carry enough birds into the winter to bring a strong nesting population into the Spring of 2014. Two good nesting seasons in a row is what it will take to get our numbers back to normal levels. THE QUAIL WILL RISE AGAIN!
