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The quail zone

Daver

PMA Member
I decided to make a new thread dealing more specifically with quail habitat management for those of us that are also interested in helping this regal game bird rebound. Deer also benefit by some of these activities, but the thrust of this thread is for quail and pheasants predominantly. (However, since we have already shared some of these items in a separate thread, I am linking that one here too for reference.)

http://iowawhitetail.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49278

Also, here is a short article that I may or may not have linked previously that spells things out in short order that I think hits the nail on the head too.

http://www.quwf.net/downloads/cnews/general/quail-habitat-manage.pdf

So far this spring, I am seeing and hearing BY FAR more quail, and pheasants, at my place then ever before. I am sure that my efforts to plant milo, switchgrass and Egyptian Wheat(EW), among other things, is paying off big and it is really rewarding as a landowner to see the fruits of your labor so clearly. Now, there is only one thing to do...GO BIGGER! :D By that I mean that I am expanding my quail enhancement techniques this year to hopefully boost the population even more.

In the interest of helping others "grow" more quail, I will list the activities, sort of in order of importance in my view, that I have been doing over the past few years. I am by no means a pro, so I am interested to hear what others have learned in this area too. Together I think we can really enhance a lot of acres for quail.

1. Milo/EW - milo is both food(seeds) and cover and will grow relatively well even in very dry summers. Perfect for the last couple of years! FYI, my EW was basically all fallen over a couple of months ago, but my milo is still standing well now and is still providing cover for the birds now. I have planted milo plots as small as 1/4 acre up to maybe 2 acres. All sized are used well by the birds. I normally place the EW along an edge of the milo and the EW is usually only a 10'-15' wide strip.

2. Bare ground - Dedicate some area to "bare dirt" in the spring, both in the timber and in the field. In fields, I have lightly disked areas as small as 1/3 acre up to maybe 1-1/2 acres and just let whatever weeds grow that come up. This open ground, combined with weeds/seeds is always a popular place to find these little buggers, and by buggers, I do mean buggers. :D These bare ground spots that turn to weeds will have lots of little insects in them and the quail need them.

I have also burned brome off to create bare dirt spots in the CRP and purposely burned through sections of timbered ground to refresh the timber floor too. Burned off brome will usually produce a good "crop" of foxtail too, which is helpful for the birds.

3. Switchgrass - I have been creating little .5 to 2.0 acre switchgrass stands and normally locate them right next to where I also plant the milo and EW. The switch is great cover all year long. I am working to get enough of it to be able to burn about 1/3 of what I have each year and still have plenty all year long.

4. TSI/edge feathering - I have also worked on the adjacent timber to the milo plots and switch areas and I know that has helped the little birds too.
 
Cool thread Daver! We're hearing way more quail on our place this spring as well. The other morning while turkey hunting they were everywhere. For a second I didn't believe it... I thought some songbird had gotten good at mimicing the quail whistle because there were that many whistling... but there's just more quail around than there has been in the past few years!
 
My friend and I broadcasted switchgrass (CIR) January 12 of this year and sprayed it with Gly and Atrazine this past weekend. The field is approximately 15 acres. I was thinking of planting a strip of Milo or EW around the entire perimeter. We have seen our First covey of quail this spring. I think the main reason is all the Big bluestem that popped up all over our farm. We also had areas that weeds took over, not by choice, they just got away from us.
Nice thread!
 
Right before we shot out 2nd season birds I looked down next to me and not even a foot away was a quail on her nest. She didn't even think of moving. I was so enamored in watching her the next thing I know two toms are beating the crap out of my half-strut jake!
 
Daver, you're my kinda guy and the kind of landowner I really enjoy working with.

I'll say from my experience, and this is supported by science, Quail management in Iowa should start with creating usable space and that is done with edge feathering and/or opening up Oak Savanna edges, releasing shrub thickets to encourage growth, and adding shrubs as "Covey Headquarters".

They are birds that would rather walk than fly, so it's important that they are always within about a hard toss of a baseball to shrubby cover. Both myself and colleagues of mine have seen good response in Quail numbers on properties where landowners have started their management with this philosophy.

Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job of creating usable space by keeping everything in close proximity. If I had a few pointers to give, I'd encourage you to disk/spray/burn in the fall rather than spring. This will encourage broadleaf annual weeds like Ragweed, rather than Foxtail, which is of much less value. In regards to your brome, seeding a half rate of legumes after disturbance would work wonders. Not much beats brome/alfalfa for nesting and brood-rearing other than really expensive native seedings. Light disk or spray and interseed in the fall. This has worked great on some of my projects and has counted for Mid-Contract Management at the max cost-share rate of $50/acre.

The best quail farms I've stepped foot on are a patchwork of shrubs, weeds and short natives with small food plots here and there, close to shrubby cover. Probably THE best farm I've stepped foot on was a mix of old virgin sod that had cattle taken off of it years ago and several acres of ag. Lots of spraying/burning has brought back a nice assortment of native grasses and forbs. Very, very little switchgrass on the farm. The shrub Covey HQ's and assorted food plots act as winter cover and none of the grassy/weedy areas are dense like a switch planting.
 
Daver, you're my kinda guy and the kind of landowner I really enjoy working with.

I'll say from my experience, and this is supported by science, Quail management in Iowa should start with creating usable space and that is done with edge feathering and/or opening up Oak Savanna edges, releasing shrub thickets to encourage growth, and adding shrubs as "Covey Headquarters".

They are birds that would rather walk than fly, so it's important that they are always within about a hard toss of a baseball to shrubby cover. Both myself and colleagues of mine have seen good response in Quail numbers on properties where landowners have started their management with this philosophy.

Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job of creating usable space by keeping everything in close proximity. If I had a few pointers to give, I'd encourage you to disk/spray/burn in the fall rather than spring. This will encourage broadleaf annual weeds like Ragweed, rather than Foxtail, which is of much less value. In regards to your brome, seeding a half rate of legumes after disturbance would work wonders. Not much beats brome/alfalfa for nesting and brood-rearing other than really expensive native seedings. Light disk or spray and interseed in the fall. This has worked great on some of my projects and has counted for Mid-Contract Management at the max cost-share rate of $50/acre.

The best quail farms I've stepped foot on are a patchwork of shrubs, weeds and short natives with small food plots here and there, close to shrubby cover. Probably THE best farm I've stepped foot on was a mix of old virgin sod that had cattle taken off of it years ago and several acres of ag. Lots of spraying/burning has brought back a nice assortment of native grasses and forbs. Very, very little switchgrass on the farm. The shrub Covey HQ's and assorted food plots act as winter cover and none of the grassy/weedy areas are dense like a switch planting.

Interesting...thanks for the reply and the advice. One of my main purposes in starting this thread is to garner advice like that you provided. I actually have some shrubs on order from the Iowa nursery. I plan on planting those in a strategic location to hopefully create a covey HQ type of micro habitat.

Are you a habitat consultant or something like that? I particularly agree with the statement that quail would rather walk than fly. Part of my strategy was with this in mind...make areas that they CAN walk, which is not really found in a regular stand of brome. I surmised that when quail populations were high "back in the day", that much of the landscape in my area of the state was actually pastured to cattle, with brushy fencerows and so forth. But absent from the landscape then was the "sea of brome" that is the bulk of CRP acres.

I'm still learning about this for sure, so I appreciate any thoughts or advice.
 
Once established I spray/kill the grass around the edges of my plum thickets so the thicket can grow bigger faster without the grass competition. I once had lots of quail (1970's)and am trying to make it more of an inviting place.
 
Nice addition Daver! I've gotten some input in the last couple months from Dannyboy that's been really helpful. I'll try and add some pics on my place from what I'll be doing in future. In the past, on the farm I sold that did have a lot of quail, the obvious was the edge feathering, lots of shrub rows in fences and ditches, combo of tall natives and some short. For some reason the farm with the most quail & pheasants had the least amount of turkeys - I wonder if any of you ever noticed that and see any connection? I'll check back on this one and lots to learn on quail, thx for posting this.
 
E wheat and Sorghum are very underrated as a food plot. Whenever we plant one or both the number of wildlife (including deer) increases on our farm. Pheasants obviously love it.

We planted a block of 2.8 acres in sorghum a few years back and two nice bucks were bedding in it during the fall, and the pheasants were thick.

No quail in my area of MN, but plan on it in the future down in Iowa if I get some pheasants and quail.
 
Nice addition Daver! I've gotten some input in the last couple months from Dannyboy that's been really helpful. I'll try and add some pics on my place from what I'll be doing in future. In the past, on the farm I sold that did have a lot of quail, the obvious was the edge feathering, lots of shrub rows in fences and ditches, combo of tall natives and some short. For some reason the farm with the most quail & pheasants had the least amount of turkeys - I wonder if any of you ever noticed that and see any connection? I'll check back on this one and lots to learn on quail, thx for posting this.

Re: turkeys v. quail...these are just my opinions and I am not a biologist, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night. :)

Through the years, I have heard various people say that the turkeys are eating the quail, etc, and that's why there aren't many quail around these days, etc. While it was true that the turkey population was booming and the quail population was fluttering downward...I never really subscribed to this as a reason. I suspect it had MUCH more to do with changing habitat than turkeys predating quail, or their nests or eggs.

That being said, I do not have trouble believing that somewhere, sometime a turkey wrecked a quail nest, pecked a little one to death, etc. I just don't think that turkeys were killing the quail in any number that mattered. But again, that is more of an opinion than a proven fact.

I think the downward trend for the quail in southern Iowa over the past 20 years or so was influenced more by the advent and growth of the CRP program. (I realize that this may seem a little counter intuitive to many, but hear me out. :)) Where there were once pastures, with pockets of bare ground, closely cropped grasses and forbs and interspersed "vertical" cover elements like horseweed patches and brushy fence lines and small segments of timber, there became "seas of brome", the most common CRP grass planted.

It so happened that the CRP program ramped up around the same time the turkey populations were spreading and it could be argued too that the CRP program was more of a boon to turks and deer than to quail too. But the real reason for the quail drop was the change, or loss, in the habitat IMO. Brome is NOT a good habitat for quail, mice yes, quail no. :)

I have been very surprised to see how very quickly the quail population will rebound WHEN the proper habitat is offered to them. Note - it is also true that our turkey population is very low right now as compared to the past 25 years or so. It does seem as though we have a hew more turks around this year than in the past 2-3 years, but still just maybe 20% of what would have been around 5+ years ago.

With this past winter being so tough, I was worried that I would lose a lot of "my quail", but I am glad to say that does not appear to be the case at all. So, my feeling that strong habitat will allow these birds to overcome was reinforced again. I also suspect that as the turk populations rebound, hopefully, that I don't anticipate the quail being negatively impacted. But I guess we will see.
 
Once established I spray/kill the grass around the edges of my plum thickets so the thicket can grow bigger faster without the grass competition. I once had lots of quail (1970's)and am trying to make it more of an inviting place.

I like that idea! I was also thinking about removing larger trees that may be overshading the few plum thickets I do have too. The ones I am thinking of are not highly desirable species and they are on the edge of the timber and leaning quite a bit, etc. So I can get a little firewood and "release" the plums at the same time.
 
E wheat and Sorghum are very underrated as a food plot. Whenever we plant one or both the number of wildlife (including deer) increases on our farm. Pheasants obviously love it.

We planted a block of 2.8 acres in sorghum a few years back and two nice bucks were bedding in it during the fall, and the pheasants were thick.

No quail in my area of MN, but plan on it in the future down in Iowa if I get some pheasants and quail.

I agree on the EW and it doesn't take a large patch of it to provide a lot of cover. Although I do not know specifically where your Iowa farm is, I know it is in the southernmost counties and as such, I would virtually guarantee you that if "you build it, they will come". :D
 
I agree on the EW and it doesn't take a large patch of it to provide a lot of cover. Although I do not know specifically where your Iowa farm is, I know it is in the southernmost counties and as such, I would virtually guarantee you that if "you build it, they will come". :D

Warren County and yes I have a few quail on my farm. Saw a covey of 10 one day two years ago, but nothing last fall?

A couple of pheasants hang out in the neighbors CRP. I have a lot of turkey so...not sure how they relate.
 
Its all about habitat with quail. Learned a lot from the days I trapped quail with the MDC and where to find them.

For instance, there was a HUGE expanse of native grasses on one state park we trapped and collared quail. Those quail were found in the same area of that native grass every day.....it was always in the annual weed patch and NOT the native grasses. The partridge pea and common ragweed patch held them every day I checked.

On another conservation area the quail were always in the worked up strips of annual weeds next to the native grasses on the hillsides. They would loaf under plum thickets every afternoon there in the same spot.

Found one that had died in between a picked corn and bean field...only thing in its craw was common ragweed seeds even with all the corn and beans laying around on the ground. That fall taught me a lot about what I thought quail wanted and what they really need.
 
Once established I spray/kill the grass around the edges of my plum thickets so the thicket can grow bigger faster without the grass competition. I once had lots of quail (1970's)and am trying to make it more of an inviting place.

I spray around the plum thickets since the grasses are mainly fescue and not great for quail transportation. That's like us walking though a 8' tall snow drift with every step. :D

80% weeds and 20% grasses are a great combo for quail. What is great about weeds are all the bare ground the quail have to move through while being shielded from above. Not counting the bugs/seeds weeds produce.

A field of common ragweed is an all you can eat buffet for quail.
 
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I surmised that when quail populations were high "back in the day", that much of the landscape in my area of the state was actually pastured to cattle, with brushy fencerows and so forth. But absent from the landscape then was the "sea of brome" that is the bulk of CRP acres.

I'm still learning about this for sure, so I appreciate any thoughts or advice.

Cattle pastures used to be chalked full of ragweed and people planted Korean lespedeza then also. Top 2 quail foods right there. Then you mix in the "patchy" little farms with some waste (weed) areas and you have a great mix for quail. Lots of fence rows then so the surface area attractive for quail was WAY higher with smaller farms and different farming practices.

Farmers mowing fescue waterways now is not going to hold any quail. They say it sure looks nice and green tho. :)

The first few years my grandparents put their farm in CRP was the best quail hunting I ever saw. Why?? It was all weeds way over my head and we could jump 3-4 coveys a day without dogs on 100 acres. Then the crap they actually planted took over (fescue) and you could say bye bye to the quail population. Was no coincidence that the only places we started finding quail then were any worked up areas where brush was cleaned off. Why? This brought tons of annual weeds back and sure enough, the quail were there too.

We worked up strips in the fescue one year for the CRP contract on their place and planted in Korean lespedeza. While walking through coon hunting one night, I jumped a big covey in the middle of one of those strips. Funny how that works :D

Spraying strips with roundup and bringing back annual weeds would be the quickest, cheapest way to start bringing back some quail to most farms.
 
I have been managing for quail and pheasant on my farms for around 5 years. Kevin Anderson was out looking at my edge feathering projects a few years ago and he knew of my interest quail and pheasants. He saw all my mowed trails and fire-breaks around the switch and cp-25 and he told me that needs to change. He went on to explain that good bird habitat isn't pristine but rather ugly and that what I had created was a corridor for predators in an area that could be critical brooding cover. What I do in those areas now is in the summer spray with RU a 30' buffer around the fields that I plan to burn the next spring. Then in the fall drill rye at a low rate 40-50 lbs ac. The next spring I have an excellent fire break followed by a mix of rye and volunteer ragweed that makes some of the best brooding cover that I've ever had. Last year there were several broods that hung out all summer in those areas. So last fall I planted rye in areas adjacent to cover that I normally would have put milo. I think that when the rye and the ragweed seed out they provide as much or more food than the milo. The best thing it provides is lots of insects and being planted at a low rate lots of room for the chicks to move around.
 
Some great ideas and advice here guys, thank you and keep it coming!! A few comments of mine...

Letemgrow - it was only last year that it sort of dawned on me that quail were really homebodies, as in often found in almost identical locations daily. (You reference jumping quail from the exact same spot(s) and the correlates with what I saw last year too.) I kept jumping what I assumed were the same coveys from almost the exact same places and then it sort of hit me. These were their homes and some of those spots were less than an acre in size, a couple of them were probably less 2400 sq ft.

Since the spots I am referring to were in in line with a couple of my deer stand entry/exit routes and because they scared the crap out of me every time they whirred up in my face while I was sort of sneaking through :D I determined to massage these spots just a bit this year so I don't have to change my underwear every time I encounter one of these coveys when I am bow hunting.

I don't know anything about Korean lespedeza, but that sounds like something I need to dig into. Although I know ragweed is a winner for quail, I need to find out how to get more of it.

Rutcon - very interesting on the field borders...guess what, I have a couple of areas like that on my place and I can see what you are saying. Time for me to rethink the clover fire break idea...hmmmm. I have left at least some of last years rye "go" the last couple of years and yes, that is prime time habitat for them.
 
I don't know anything about Korean lespedeza, but that sounds like something I need to dig into. Although I know ragweed is a winner for quail, I need to find out how to get more of it.

Rutcon - very interesting on the field borders...guess what, I have a couple of areas like that on my place and I can see what you are saying. Time for me to rethink the clover fire break idea...hmmmm. I have left at least some of last years rye "go" the last couple of years and yes, that is prime time habitat for them.


I would not worry about the Korean lespedeza. Disturb the soil enough to get ragweed and you are golden. We also netted coveys at night when I worked with MDC on quail they had radio collared.

Lets just say it was usually easy to find them and get the net over top. They were usually out in areas of annual weeds roosted for the night. The poop ring was a dead giveaway too once you see it on how they roost.

I would have never guessed quail to roost in those really open areas, but they do quite often.
 
The next spring I have an excellent fire break followed by a mix of rye and volunteer ragweed that makes some of the best brooding cover that I've ever had. Last year there were several broods that hung out all summer in those areas. So last fall I planted rye in areas adjacent to cover that I normally would have put milo. I think that when the rye and the ragweed seed out they provide as much or more food than the milo. The best thing it provides is lots of insects and being planted at a low rate lots of room for the chicks to move around.

x2 on what was posted above.

That's why I leave my rye patches also. Always been tons of turkey poults bugging out in those areas in the summer....same goes with quail chicks.
 
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