I mean a season that actually features QUAIL? Anybody have a sense of what the quail population will be like? Will there be a population?

Every time I get set to go see for myself, there is a "Red Flag" fire hazard warning and the public lands are closed....

Is northern California a possibility, or are they all
"Red Flagged" too?

I'm away from home right now, visiting the Okanagan Valley in south central British Columbia. Everywhere I look are quail. A covey of 10-12 wandering around the driveway at 6:00 am this morning. Driving through a residential neighbourhood, quail milling around every stop sign. I'm coming back in the fall. Lots of public land and most hunters are not bird hunters.

About 30 miles south of here it's a Sonoran desert.

I doubt there will many quail in SoCal. We normally see lots of quail during dove season, but last fall saw very few in SoCal or AZ so guessing the breeding population is way down. Combine that with the dry winter and spring and the prospects are not good.

What quail haven't died of thirst will have been burned out in the fires. I think we're in for at least a couple bleak seasons.

Guess I'll start saving up for gas....

I suspect that in New Mexico, we are in for another dreadful quail season as well. Quail populations are all about moisture. Too little, too much or any at the wrong time can doom a population. Females are dependent on early greens for calcium for shell formation. It also triggers necessary hormonal responses. The young need the proteins from abundant small insects which feed on the early season green vegetation. With insufficient winter snow or rain and no rain to speak of so far this spring, New Mexico is now the driest state in the nation. This seems to be the case across much of the Southwest from southern California through west Texas.
No moisture = no quail.

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

The link above will show some data on various areas of the country. NM looks about as bad as it gets.