Released birds, if well flight conditioned, are an option but those which aren't are like road runners. Frustrating.
In the early 60's my father released several hundred pheasants on one of his farms. Maybe a couple dozen escaped harvest and lived several years but never raised any off spring. It was still a thrill to be quail hunting, have a dog locked up on point and have one of those monsters erupt when you were expecting a covey.
I always felt the competition between quail and turkeys favored the turkeys at the expense of my little quail. When I was a boy we had zero turkeys and lots of quail. While my best efforts to make a quail comeback were going on the DNR decided to introduce wild turkeys all around me. In five years turkeys were every where and my quail were ghosts. On my river front farm I went from six wild coveys and no turkeys to one small covey of quail and turkeys every where. I've seen as many as thirty turkeys in the fields at one time. But my quail are gone and nothing has brought them back.
It is annoying when the DNR decides to do something that impacts people around them it is OK. If I did that they would have taken me to court. But they are from the government and are here to help.
