Quail season to start Saturday

By Kathy Thomson

Quail hunting season begins across the entire state of Texas this Saturday, Oct. 26, and although bird numbers are expected to be up slightly compared to last year, according to surveys the quail population in the Rolling Plains, which includes Shackelford County, they are still well below average.

“There is definitely a population of quail out there,” said Shackelford County game warden Jacob Mort. “We had very successful hatches, and there are probably even enough to hunt (without hurting the future population numbers). I’ve seen quite a few birds.”

‘Spotty’ is often used to describe quail populations in the Lone Star State, and that fits the upcoming season, according to Quail Forever writer Ted Gartner. 

“After an almost universally poor season last year, biologists are hopeful quail populations are on the rebound,” he said. 

Quail populations fluctuate widely from one season to the next, and according to Robert Perez, quail program leader with Texas Parks and Wildlife, the primary drivers for these annual variations are weather and habitat. 

Although the weather was reasonably cooperative this year with adequate moisture early on, providing decent quail habitat coming into the nesting season, low bird numbers last year meant fewer carryover birds to produce chicks. 

“We had a mild winter and a fairly good spring with plenty of moisture,” Perez said. “Up until mid to late June, everybody was reporting that they were seeing birds, including young birds; and then it got hot and dry. In August, when it came time to do the road counts, it was still really hot, and people weren’t hearing as many birds as they were expecting.”

Perez said he is hopeful that the birds were just shaded up out of sight during the surveys because of the hot weather.

Executive director of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch Dale Rollins wrote that reports he received from Shackelford County rated quail outlooks from a “seven” in northwestern Shackelford County to a “four or five” in most of the county.

Quail hunting season runs through Feb. 23, 2020. The daily bag limit for quail is 15, with 45 in possession. Legal shooting hours for all non-migratory game birds are 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. 

In addition, an Upland Game Bird Endorsement is required to hunt quail, pheasant, turkey, or chachalaca. This endorsement costs $7.