Quail non Hunting

Greetings All,
The Quail are starting to mob up for winter on our small block. Currently there are family and blended groups speed feeding across our lawn and some of the chicks are getting flying lessons from the corners of our deck. I was concerned that the recent dry conditions had put a dent in the chick population but apparently not. I don't shoot Quail or ducks for that matter and traded of my unused shotgun a few years ago for a rangefinder. I do rather like watching them zooming about though.
Regards Grandpamac.

On the contrary @grandpamac, this is probably their second clutch of the season, I know the roosters have been crowing again just a few weeks ago, and a bit of fighting going on as well.

Quail hunting over a good dog is one of my favorite types of Upland Game / Wing shooting ,but just like ducks etc l still love & have always worked to improve their habitat & encourage them on my blocks,we have always set up our farm garden & the surrounds to encourage bird life,it is one of the reasons l was determined to get a minimum 20 hectares out of towns to settle on & as you know with your own block walks you are doing now the sights & sounds of the bird life make exercise a bit more interesting & enjoyable .

You would love Chukar Partridge ,they are real characters & when we lived in the remote Kimberly region of the Top End of Oz ,we had a convey living around us ,they do crazy little dances during the mating season & are fearless little buggers who like nothing better than taking long dust bath's while the dogs were forced to watch through the fly screens.

As with all these ground birds bloody cats do a huge amount of damage & over the years we spent in the Kimberly's you could see the drop off of numbers as feral cats became more prevalent .When l do retire l want to look at setting up some Chukar on our block to go along with the Quail .

Greetings Johnd and Bunji,
To Johnd, The young ones are assorted sizes with the biggest half the size of the adults and my lawn is only a small part of their habitat. The males seem to tolerate each others presence so the breeding season may be over here. Will have a sneak around with the bino's,
To Bunji, We have 8 ha which we bought about 1993. Initially it had nothing on it bar grass. My late father propagated various trees and I bought more. About 1.5 ha is now in trees with the balance being grazed. Initially there were few native birds other than Kingfishers but one day about 10 years ago I heard a Tui which was here for a few weeks and returned the following year with friends. Bell birds and others followed. A Kereru visited for a few weeks about two years ago but has not been back yet. By dumb luck I seem to have planted a good range of habitat including for bees. My father probably helped with that. Much of the planted areas are left pretty wild which likely helps as well.
Regards Grandpamac.