first quail sighting ever on farm

[JFK52]

My acreage is in Southern Portage county Wisconsin. I have an abundance of turkeys, average amount of morning doves and a few grouse. The other day I saw my first quail ever on my land. I have owned this property for over 27 years. The quail family was in a patch of buckwheat that was getting mowed down for late season brassica planting. I had to look up pictures online to verify that I saw a quail with young chicks.

I planted 50 pounds of buckwheat and 50 pounds of iron and clay cowpeas this season as something different to plant. I put some black oil sunflower seed in the cowpeas to give the vines something to latch onto.

It is always good to see another game bird species on your property. I only hunt the turkeys. There are so many of them they are actually pests.

 

[wiscwhip]

Cool! Good for you! Quail like anything that produces smaller sized seeds, my guess is they were feasting on your I/C peas and possibly the sunflowers.

 

[ghilliehunter]

JFK, Very exciting! I put 10 acres in Pheasant Habitat CRP this year with the hopes of seeing pheasant or quail in the future.

 

[j-bird]

Secondary benefits of our deer habitat work.... The old-timers say that, at least in my area, if you have lots of quail and rabbits then you have a healthy habitat. These animals require good cover and a good food supply to survive....doesn't mean you may have a lot of deer, but at least the habitat is healthy. Quail number sin my area are really down.....mostly due to habitat loss. It's always nice to see other benefits of our work in the natural environment....

 

[Bill]

That's great!
There were a few around when I started turning my place into a mess. Now there everywhere and the pheasant are starting to rebound. Got this the other day. Don't know much about pheasant but I didn't think they landed in trees.

Two in my rubbing tree and two on the ground to the left. Maybe perching has something to do with them being juveniles.

Hopefully your numbers keep growing..

 

[DrDirtNap]

Really neat seeing the quail. I haven’t seen one on my property for a long long time. You must be doing a lot of things right in your habitat improvements.


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[ksgobbler]

Just busted 2 adults with 6 chicks about the size of a sparrow.

 

[J B]

Very cool! I’m in south central WI and saw my first quail in 20 years last fall while bow hunting. Half of them made the winter and we’re still seeing one male on a somewhat regular basis. I’m guessing that someone released them, but the neighbor did mowed 90 acres of 20 year old cool season crp, so maybe they came from over there? I was hoping to see some young ones, but haven’t yet. Pheasant numbers are also at a 10 year better high. I did see some really small pheasant chicks with a hen last week. They couldn’t have been 5” tall yet. All of the habitat work for the deer is starting to pay off!

 

[H20fwler]

I love hearing and seeing them, we haven't had any wild quail in my county since the blizzard of 78 wiped them out. Most farmers here farm way to clean to leave any food or habitat for them now...I have been trying to focus on improving my place for quail, had our state quail expert walk the farm with me last spring. I release quail to work the dog but they don't survive long, hopefully the next time the state has a trap and release of wild quail from the southern part of state my farm will make it on the relocation propagation project.