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| New management emphasis benefits quail |  |
Read about
DON'T DO FESCUE
BRING BACK BOB
BY: ALLEN MORRIS
WEEKEND HUNTER
Bring back Bob (bobwhite quail that is) now is on the top of the list for Missouri Department of Conservation and Quail Unlimited.
Cooperative effort between the two organizations has developed a new quail habitat initiative to help bring back bobwhite quail to their former abundance.
No matter if you are talking deer, turkey, rabbit, dove, and quail the most important thing is HABITAT, HABITAT and lets not forget HABITAT.
If you never have quail hunted before or maybe you have you will know that quail has to be one of the most exciting game birds to hunt. Just remember to leave 6 bird in a covey. Remember conservation is also a key.
Quail Unlimited chapters in Missouri have dedicated some or all of their wildlife habitat budgets to four cost-share or incentive practices promoted by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The Missouri Department of Conservation will match Quail Unlimited chapters’ contributions one-to-one and provide technical assistance to qualifying landowner.
So be sure you contact your local Conservation Department Private Land Conservationist or Natural Resources Conservation Service Office.
Cost-share or incentive payments are not available for land enrolled in the CRP. However, acres enrolled in the Conservation Department’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program or Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program are eligible for enrollment in continuous CRP buffer practices.
To learn more about buffer practice and what they are also check with the USDA about buffer zones on your land. Look for the following information.
Conservation Buffers work Economically and Environmentally.
Field Border Conservation Practice Job Sheet.
Managing Grasslands for Profit.
Habitat losses have been caused by an increase of large, poorly managed or unmanaged fields with just one type of grass like fescue.
Fescue has to be one of the most UN-beneficial grass and even the cause of low population of quail, turkey and even rabbit due to the fact that it leaves no bare ground like warm season grasses and forbs such as wildflowers, switchgrass, bluestem, indiangrass with all tend to clump. Providing pathways between the plants while providing cover.
Annual disturbance provides essential elements of quail habitat – bare ground and annual weeds.
The quail habitat initiative, called Bring Back Bob, provides 75 percent cost-share or incentive payments to landowners with a wildlife management plan to implement approved practices
Practices available for cost sharing or incentive payments are herbaceous vegetation control, nesting cover establishment, annual disturbance and old field/hedgerow renovation. Other practices may be available, depending upon local habitat needs.
The bad news out of 25 Quail Unlimited chapters in Missouri the Southeast Missouri area has no chapter here. The closet is St. Louis and Springfield. That does not stop you from being a member or consider this start up a chapter. They have even started just this year dove society that can be the same quail unlimited chapter. Remember conservation is the key. We can’t keep taking from the sport without putting back in. We owe that to our kids.
For more information about Quail Unlimited contact.
Quail Unlimited National Headquarters
31 Quail Run or P.O. Box 610
Edgefield, South Carolina, 29824
Phone: (803) 637-5731
Fax: (803) 637-0037
www.qu.org
While you have them on the phone ask them about two great magazines: Quail Unlimited & another called Dove Hunter.
Also some other great resources from Quail Unlimited.
Article on Plateau Herbicid Registered for CRP use – Target Tall Fescue.
National Conservation Buffer Initative – Buffers common sense conservation.
Handling the Fescue Problem.
Quail Unlimited brochure Join Today.
But not all is lost if you don’t qualify for any programs. “Bring back the Bobwhite” Series appears monthly in Rural Sportsman. Just go to www.progressivefarmer.com then click on ruralsportsman link.
They also have a great little booklet, entitled Managing for Quail, sells for $9.95, plus $3.95 S&H. It is available by calling 1-800-425-0374 or
Managing for Quail
Progressive Farmer Publications
P.O. Box 830069
Birmingham, AL. 35283
For more information about starting up a Quail Unlimited Chapter contact Jef Hodges. He is the Regional Director for the Great Plains Region Office and he can help you get started. I have talked with Jef and he is very committed to the Quail problem in Missouri and would be glad to help anyone interested in starting up a chapter.
Great Plains Region
Jef Hodges
382 NW Highway 18
Clinton, Missouri 64735
Phone: (660) 885-7057
Fax: (660) 885-7152
Thanks to the Missouri Department of Conservation for the information for this story.
The Weekend Deer Hunter
http://walden.mvp.net/~gam/
&
South Missouri Sportsmen Information Network
www.southmosportsmen.com
P.S. Be sure to listen to the new and only outdoor radio show. 106.1 f.m. Cape Girardeau 6:00 a.m. each Saturday. With your host horntagger and bassbuster.
WINGS OF FALL
by Pat Wheeler
Fin Fur & Feather Guide Service
http://server38.hypermart.net/finfurfeather/main.htm
The smell of burning leaves, frost that blankets the ground, the constant hum of farm machinery, all of these things remind different people of different things. To me, it only means one thing, upland game birds and pointers in the field. All across Iowa and northern Missouri, our pulses quicken and our eyes shift to fields soon to be walked in anticipation of the flush of that first cackling rooster pheasant.
October 28th marks the 2000 season opener for pheasants and quail in Iowa. Iowa long known as the pheasant capitol of world is looking forward to possibly one of the best seasons in years. Many farmers and hunting enthusiasts are reporting a possibly third hatch in extreme SW Iowa. Birds abound and so do hunting opportunities in SW Iowa. For the upland hunter, this is extremely good news.
The 1999 season was a mixed success; warm weather and lower bird counts made success an iffy deal at best. A good portion of the hunting season was unusually warm and dry. Many birds ran wild and hunting dogs’ noses were dry and dust filled in a matter of minutes. The weather is looking like it will cooperate more this year and hunter and dog alike are becoming increasingly excited.
The best bet for success in the field this year will be in SW Iowa. Hunters should concentrate their efforts in the southern two tiers of counties in Iowa and in general west of interstate 35. Iowa does not offer a lot of public ground opportunities, but after the second weekend of the season, permission is often easily obtained, by knocking on doors and asking permission.
Upland game enthusiasts can look forward to an excellent pheasant season in SW Iowa. For those that prefer guided hunts, some guides still have openings left, although not many. Whatever you prefer, get out and hunt’em up! And remember, if you get a chance, take a kid hunting, they are the future of our great sport.
Pat Wheeler
Fin Fur & Feather
http://server38.hypermart.net/finfurfeather/main.htm
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I have been hunting quail
and pheasant in North Missouri for almost twenty years. Back in the
early eighties I even saw several days when we got into seven covey, and
I never got to hunt in the very best places around in those days.
It seems like those seven covey days got fewer and farther between.
Finding one or two covey is a full day adventure anymore. I do not
know if those days will ever return. I hope they do.
There is nothing like watching a good bird dog do his job. Quivering ever so slightly as you walk up behind his otherwise rock solid point. A lot of devout bird hunters have given up their dogs and took to looking at their photo albums from days gone by. Days when little balls of brown fluff rocketed in all directions, missed shots were taken in stride with good humor and dogs knew their jobs well because they had played the game so many times before. |
| I recently had a flashback
to those days when I spent a morning with Doug Bryn who owns Cedar Hill
Hunting Preserve. Doug met me in his driveway that morning well before
dawn. He was crouched down giving some attention to one of next years
champions, a three month old brittany pup. We had made a plan, he
would set me up in a tree stand for a morning bow hunt, mid morning he
would give me a tour of the place and then we would turn the dogs loose
on some of those quail Cedar Hill is becoming famous for.
Everything went as planed. I got to watch a young buck trot by my stand with his nose to the ground, hot in pursuit of some young doe, no doubt. Doug showed me the set up and fed me brunch. We loaded up the dogs and headed for the brush. |
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I was not shooting lead
and powder this particular day, I thought I would use this opportunity
to get some good video footage of a quail hunt. I tagged along with
Doug, his son Logan and his clients, Justin Cressler and Allen Creek.
Justin brought along his pointer that rarely gets hunted, for some practice,
Allen brought along a pointer he was testing to see if he would be worth
buying and Doug brought a couple of his old reliable brittanies.
It wasn't long before we were into birds and even though the ground was
dry and it was a little warmer than we'd have liked we got to see some
good dog work and shot plenty of quail.
I have never had the luxury of bird hunting on a preserve and from what I have heard of them I was not very interested in trying it. The stories I had heard of planted birds that need a swift kick to get in the air, sounded like a bit less fulfilling than I have grown up thinking a bird hunt should be, whether you get any or not. This quail hunt was not exactly what I expected on a hunting preserve. The habitat at Cedar Hill is not the manicured flat cover strips I had expected and the birds were not the semi-tame slow flying pen raised quail I had expected. These guys were tricky, evasive and challenging. The only thing that would make you suspect that this was not a natural quail population is the shear numbers of birds we encountered which is very rare in north Missouri these days. If you need to train your bird dog or you just want to experience a great bird hunt you need to check out Cedar Hill Hunting Preserve. They are also setting up deer and turkey hunts. By Tom Morrow |
Cedar Hill Hunting Preserve
Doug Byrn
Rt. 1 Box 80B
Downing, Mo. 63536
660-379-2832
cedarhillhuntingpreserve@hotmail.com
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Here's a couple of pheasants I killed before the weather got so nasty.
This was the first
time I'd hunted pheasants in North Missouri in 10 years. Only seen three roosters and bagged two of them. My English Pointer pointed all three, my buddy missed his. Hunting east of Maryville on private land. Dan Misel, Gunsmith
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