doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: California quail prospects?

Anybody know anything about the prospects for a better quail season in Southern/central CA? I went into the Angeles Natnl. Forest near Santa Clarita (San Francisquito Canyon)very early last Thursday and heard quail calling in many of the side canyons. Is that a sign that they are mating this year?

I also visited the Carrizo Plains NM last week. No quail in the NM itself (that I could hear) but pronghorns and Tule elk, pretty rare in CA. CP is a lotta lonely....just 100 miles as the condor flies from Sunset Blvd. Saw one condor (with a redtailed hawk) for scale, surfin' the thermals on the Temblor Range. DAMN those things are big!

The minute I got out of the rain shadow into the green part of the Coast Range, I started seeing and hearing quail. We gonna have a quail season? (We're clearly gonna have a SNAKE season; nearly stepped on a 4+ ft. rattler in San Francisquito; and had a small tiff with a big red coachwhip, non-poisonous but bad tempered, here in Orange County).

What say ye--any CA quail augurs?

Mike, I'm not expecting much. It's just been too dry. Spring and summer quail in the local mountains are misleading. I usually see lots of quail in the San Berdoo Mountains from Memorial Day into August, but have never seen them during quail season. Same for bandtailed pigeons; dozens during the summer but none around the season. Jim Matthews is a local outdoor writer who usually publishes his and others' quail and chukar counts in late summer, and he may still write for Western Outdoor News; worth looking him up. He also published (still may) a subscription bulletin called "Western Birds" or something like that; have not seen it in a few years, but it was good.

My regular quail patch is about 10 miles from the south end of the Carrizo, down 30 near the pistaschio fields. I'm hopeful but skeptical that we'll have a good season. I'll settle for a reasonable season. Pen raised birds are entertaining, but not the same as a wild quail flush. Nothing more challenging to connect a shot with in CA from my perspective. I think it's possible it'll be a bit better than last year, since we did get more rain than winter of 06-07.

Can't beat Carrizo for snakes this time of year; just spectacular.

Very interested in hearing of places to hunt quail in No. California - is it like deer, all the good land is private?

A few years ago I hunted Camp Roberts in deer season and the number of quail was unbelievable. Came back in quail season and there were virtually none.

Hi, Chuck! Enjoy your posts from Torrance. It looks like even the slightly higher elevations in Western Kern/Santa Barbara/Ventura/SLO got extra rain in the spring that we didn't get down here in LA/Orange. So maybe more reproduction of quail than previous year? Fingers crossed; think I'll do another scout in beginning of Sept.; leave the wife at home that time so I can sleep out in quail country and listen really early.

LGF, I see you live (at least part time) in what I consider my home town, the much-maligned Berkeley (I was raised so far out of Willits that I don't consider it home). I lived there from 1962-72 while attending UC, and working to pay for it. Interesting place to live; never a dull moment, at least in those days!

Can you tell me how you got onto Camp Roberts? When I previously lived in CA, one had to sneak in from the Big Sur side (LONG overnight hike). Is it open, or partly open, to civilians now? My Marine baby son just got posted to DLI in Monterey for about a year and a half, and I'd like to revisit some of the spots I formerly had to trespass to get to with him, shoot a pig, find those pesky disappearing quail, etc. (PM me if your answer is "classified").

I've always loved snakes (not so sure aboout some of the Kenya ones....) but I suspect the more rapid ones like racers and coachwhips are NOT a help to the quail population. Red coachwhips in particular seem to hang out in wild cucumber, what we used to call "quail vine" in Mendocino county....

The only place I've hunted quail successfully in northern CA in recent years is in the public area "behind" Lake Mendocino. We fould two large coveys in there one morning in 2002 when I came for my 40th high school reunion. Army Corps of Engineers and their volunteers there were very helpful in telling us where to go. You could probably call them and get a quail forecast. Lots of rattlers there, too--mind your dogs!

Replacement, thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can find Matthews and/or "Western Outdoor News" forecast. CA Fish and Game used to have a quarterly magazine called "Tracks" that did some kind of bird forecast, but I think it has died for lack of funding. They may publish something online, instead--seems I saw something like that. If/when I find something, I'll share.

Mike, Chuck,

If you ever run out of quail we can surely send some back. We have an abundant population
locally (introduced from CA). I even have some visiting my garden
Our daily quota is 25 birds (if you hit them)!

Great shooting and eating!

JC (Chile)

Hi, JC! We might just have to do that if the drought in Southern CA keeps up. Everywhere in our West, water equals quail.(Maybe we could trade you some snakes--just kidding!) Actually we have lots of quail but often in places where you can't hunt them (like Catalina Island). They seem to favor back yards and gardens; when I was a kid in Northern California every farm wife had a covey that she protected from us hunters--"You can shoot all the jackrabbits and cottontails you like, but leave my pet quail alone!"

I like all quail, but the California variety has the neatest "paint job," I think. (Our mountain quail variety is even prettier, but very hard to hunt--real runners and in very tough terrain). Do you know when California quail were introduced into Chile?

FWIW -- Last year around our home I never saw a hatch. Adults, yes but not one young one. This year they are all over the place.

I hope DT's indicator is correct. Last year was a bust for wild quail. I shot my first pen bird ever last season and ended up shooting a bunch later. Mind you, I had fun, especially using my 410 on the hen phez, but it wasn't quite the satisfaction of wild birds. Kinda like scrambled eggs and rice without the fried spam. Good, but not a culinary delight like a good crispy fried spam slice.