That Quail Place Forum
Hunting Gamebirds => Shooting Preserve Management => Topic started by: Zego on February 08, 2010, 01:28:47 PM
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Here is some pictures of a place where Im gonna release bobwhites. I am interested in your opinions if it is a good place or bad and what should be improved.
(http://www.shrani.si/f/2G/Kf/RtVG5W8/picture-001-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/37/7/2PGmGAGy/picture-014-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/11/64/4EEjcRkz/picture-007-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/2M/Gu/1BMS8ZWJ/picture-013-800x600.jpg)
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Road with plenty of cover on both sides
(http://www.shrani.si/f/N/Me/27dvAVHy/picture-035-800x600.jpg)
I am also planning to plant ragweed on the corners of those small bushes to provide some food...
(http://www.shrani.si/f/3/Bh/2R1BKNpC/picture-041-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/39/K9/lpLv5qb/picture-040-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/W/TD/1kT2Eout/picture-042-800x600.jpg)
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Water source with plenty of cover around...
(http://www.shrani.si/f/u/o4/UxnZAew/picture-045-800x600.jpg)
Open land with a lot of cover at the end
(http://www.shrani.si/f/3c/Hn/4h5CVxoH/picture-014-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/P/11P/nUvIhRt/picture-015-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/2h/AB/pLnpmg6/picture-019-800x600.jpg)
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A vineyard...
(http://www.shrani.si/f/2a/wL/4ok85jtc/picture-023-800x600.jpg)
(http://www.shrani.si/f/3o/u/3C35AVtx/picture-024-800x600.jpg)
While I was taking pictures goates visited me :laugh:
(http://www.shrani.si/f/1W/G4/3Jlr4e5j/picture-036-resolucija-n.jpg)
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So nobody wants to advise me what to improve on this land? :grin:
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It looks wonderful to me. I would only do three things.
1 Introduce food plots, as you eluded to. http://www.wildlifeseeds.com/foodplots/quail/ Crown vetch is also a very good nesting/ food source. It provides a lot of bugs for the little ones and is a very thick cover. Some people also like to bushhog paths in the nesting area (before spring) for thick cover and open feeding lanes. The little guys can't eat grasshoppers on the tops of the vetch. But they can sure chase them on open ground. Cover for protection is just a few feet away to zip into. Seeds are very important to get quail through the winter. Prescribed burning is also usually employed in late winter to provide land for new growth.
2 Predation control. Learn to trap, either with steel traps or cage traps. The target animals are generally very easy to catch,,, IE, raccoons, opossums, fox squirrels, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, skunks, dogs, cats, rats and weasels.
3 Look into american black belly sheep, or barbados black belly sheep. The first is essentially a barbados with horns. They do what goats are supposed to do. Goats are said to be brush eaters. This is untrue unless there is no viable forage. Goats, like deer are browse eaters and will pick the most succulent plants to eat. The hair sheep above on the other hand favor weeds and brush. They will thin out the undesirable growth on the land. Their favorite food is briers followed by any weed they encounter next. Bugs feed on the highest protein source they can find. Quail love bugs. The sheep thin out the low protein food sources which makes room for higher protein food sources.
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Thank you bugflipper some very helpfull information. Im from Slovenia (Europe) so I have to admit that Im very lucky when it comes to predators because most of them which you counted dont even live here. I think the most dangerous predators over here are fox, weasel and maybe rats. Hawks are also a problem but again Im lucky that here we dont have coopers hawk which is specialist for quails I believe. The hawks we have here are mostly buzzards, goshawks and sparrowhawks (which is a bit to small for quails, male definately, female maybe not).
I also have to say that climate here is very good. Winters are not a problem because its mostly raining instead of snowing. If its snowing, 1-2inches of snow is maximum and ussually its gone within 2 days. However, summers are very hot and dry. It might happen that there is no rain for 2 months and 37 deegres of C every day.
Regards,
Leo