I must still disagree that quail can thrive when all the controllables are restored. My neighboring landowner to the east is Wade Plantation. The owner also owns Milhaven Plantation which is separated from Wade by only one privately owned property. Together they comprise some 55,000, more or less, acres.
The owner strove for over 30 years to establish and maintain flourishing populations of wild quail. He employed Tall Timbers and Walt Rosene, who is an acknowledged master of wild bobwhite habitat and preservation, for many years.
The owner was hugely successful for a number of years, keeping very accurate and deliberate records of each hunt. At the high point the records indicated that Wade Plantation's dogs and hunters flushed 6.7 covey rises per hour of dogs on the ground, in that season. A couple years later it all crashed. Very few wild birds to be found, and this after literally millions of dollars had been spent in habitat restoration, feeding, predator control, etc. All those experts were called back in to diagnose the "disease" but eventually they threw in the towel and began stocking early release birds.
Until I am proven wrong I will always believe the crash was due to the eye worms. Texas is making inroads in controlling these parasites in quail, but again, I am pessimistic that they will ever come back like they were in the 60s, 70's and 80s.
