For this first installment I am going to use a picture that I have posted on here before (but I thought would be appropriate again) that goes back to my very first "hunting" encounter. This is me sometime in about the December 1979 - February 1980 timeframe sitting in front of a bag-limit of bobwhite quail that my Dad and Grandaddy had just hunted. The picture was taken on the kitchen floor in my grandparents' house in Gunter, Texas. These birds were shot somewhere within a few miles of Gunter. Nowadays you would be hard-pressed to even find a single covey of birds in this area. The last covey I saw was several years ago. Most people blame the fire ants, and I believe that is a partial reason for their decline, but I really think the main reason for the decline of the bobwhite in that area is habitat fragmentation and overgrazing. Thirty years ago (when this picture was taken) there was more farming in the area and bigger tracts of land. For example, a 500 acre piece of land that was excellent quail habitat (mixture of farmland and pasture) in this area in the late 1970's now probably has been fragmented into smaller 5 - 10 acre homesites that are landscaped and mowed. Or, if it is still in pastureland, cattle are allowed to graze year round without any type of rotational grazing system, greatly reducing the amount of cover for quail. Anyway, I could rant on and on about how people have destroyed the quail population, but I won't do that right now. Hopefully you will enjoy "Throwback Thursday".
1 comment:
I never did get into bird hunting but always thought about trying it.
That is a cool picture though.
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