Desert Quail

The Traveling Wingshooter 2014: Desert Quail Forecast
by Dave Smith

There are years to hunt desert quail and there are years to do something different. The 2014-15 desert quail season may be the latter due to sustained drought conditions in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and California.

Jonathan O’Dell, Arizona Game & Fish Department, reports that Arizona experienced a 70-day period without any rain last winter, thereby sinking any hopes of a rebound for Gambel’s or scaled quail from historically low populations. Extreme drought in southern Nevada yielded similar results for Gambel’s, according to Shawn Espinosa, Nevada Department of Wildlife. Thanks to good monsoon rains in 2013 and 2014, O’Dell expects at least decent hunting for Mearns’ quail in southeastern Arizona. However, grim prospects for Gambel’s and scalies will amplify the pressure on Mearns’ quail.

Hunting for California (valley) quail may be even more challenging. California‘s quail range received very little rainfall over the last 18 months and contains some of the worst habitat conditions in decades, evidenced as I drove through a big swath of the California’s best quail country last summer. Likewise, Oregon has been in a severe drought and last season’s quail harvest (18,800) was a 20-year low, according to Dave Budeau, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Budeau expects a slight improvement this year. Try Idaho, or perhaps northern Nevada, for valley quail.

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