Quail habitat questions

[Slaya]

We've recently thinned out the first area we will begin to manage for quail, with the remainder of land to be thinned as well, along and along. We cut out all the roads and firebreaks to around 30' wide for use as grass breaks and perennial plantings. All of the roadways and firebreaks will go to natural grasses and permanent plants, some native, some clovers, etc. What native vegetations are the most productive for re-establishing quail populations? What types of commercially available bunch-grasses are best suited to the midlands of South Carolina? Do any of you all use non-shrub Lespedeezas in your quail habitat? If so, what types? How difficult is the maintenace on these plants? Do you have to be able to get a tractor to them every year? Can they establish in plots scattered through open areas in the woods here and there? Those of you who supplementary feed, what is the best method for doing this-Rotate areas, bushhog trails, etc?
Also, we will establish several plots designed to maximize edge cover, all narrow L and U shaped plots that we plan on establishing lespedeezas, partridge peas, etc. on. Is this a bad idea from a predator standpoint? Should we consider other products for our plots and roads? I would love to have some info from you all that have a working knowledge of managing for birds.

[deadriver]

Sent you a PM.

[Slaya]

Didn't get it. Nobody has anything to share?

[Low Country Sandlapper]

I'm a big fan of bluestem, partridge pea, rag weed and broomsedge. I would concentrate on spring/summertime weed management, I believe. As for baiting, I prefer soybeans, as cracked corn and milo draws everything in the woods. Good protein, quail love it and you don't have near the problem with other critters. Scatter your feed in areas with overhead (avian protection) cover and vary it to keep ground predators honest.

[Slaya]

LCS,
We plan to burn on at least a three year rotation, but hope to burn the newly thinned areas at least every two years to start, possibly yearly depending on the amount of needles dropping after the inital burn. That should put the broomsedge and natives back into production. What are you referring to with weed control? A program like Cut 'em was talking about, Quality Vegetative Management? Or are you referring to weed control in the plots themselves? So, we should forego feeding in the fallow fields (taken over by briar, broomstraw, goldenrod, etc) and feed in the woods once the grasses are re-established?

[Spartina]

Take a look at this website. It lists Quail mgt. practices that can be administered throughout the year.

www.coveyheadquarters.com

[Low Country Sandlapper]

Slaya, I'm talking about the same thing as Cut'Em.....promoting weeds for brood cover. Split your pines into many different blocks and patchwork burn every year so that some is burned clean to the dirt and other left untouched. Not politically correct but I would start eliminating ground nest predators, too.

[GBelly]

16 oz. of Arsenal AC in the late summer, followed by a good burn. Fertilize the treated areas. QVM in a nutshell.

I wouldnt treat whole blocks: but strips, corridors, x-patters, s-patterns, and any kind of patch work would be a good start.

Promote your beggars lice, broom, beauty berry...your herbaceous species.

I have some good literature for you from last weeks seminar at UGA.

[Low Country Sandlapper]

I would rate Arsenal slightly behind the drip torch and disc harrow as one of the most important tools in quail management. It will certainly expedite the whole process. You will soon find it is also expensive as hell! lol

[Slaya]

I already have a disk and can get my hands on a drip torch(not necessarily a good thing)and somone who knows how to use them , but not sure how much arsenal we can afford. On fires, what is the best method of burning for re-establsihing grasses? Slow, backing fires or burning in strips by stringing some head strips? Already fertilize some patches of natural vegetation, and should be able to increase that now that we can access the thinned areas.

[GBelly]

Slaya,
Just dont "ring it" and you will be fine. A good strip head fire is hard to beat. Back it off your line and let her roll. Your cousin should be a helluva fire slinger by now.

Arsenal aint cheap, but hard to beat!

If yall need any help stringing some fire let me know. Got a few fire pots I can bring too.

[Slaya]

He's gotten to know a good deal about fire and such. We're definitely counting on him to show us the way NOT to burn up the neighbor's woods or the old house, LMAO. He did a good job with marking the thinning as well. I can't wait to see the broomstraw growing under the pines out there!

[Mergie Master]

Slaya,
There's a little write up at the DNR site about quail and rabbit habitat --->HERE

It seems to involve farming practices mostly but there's also a phone number to the DNR Small Game Project in Columbia at (803) 734-3609 you can call for more info.

[deadriver]

Cover! Cover! Cover! That is what matters these days in Quail management. Supplemental feeding has been found by tall timbers to be very detrimental unless you don't feed the same places consecutively. Predation is high from supplemental. Here is the kicker, food plots are areas of concentrated predation on quail. So if you don't think that there is enough feed around, throw feed over in plum thickets, honey suckle and blackberry thickets where the quail will have cover. Mostly, the native plants can actually support the food requirements, lack of good cover is the problem.

Few people realize how much PERENIAL - Aireal cover will determine survival of a covey. Start planning on trying to encourage or leave thickets of evergreens and "unyeilding" plants, chicksaw plum, autumn olive, wax mrytle is everywhere- manage it, silver bay, etc. Try to look at your place on a landscape level and design "escape" cover for a busted covey near anywhere they will spend time (feeding areas). The ideal situation is field edges with myrtle, privet (yes, privet) or switchgrass "hedges". You can mow them with a heavy bush hog to manage them every two years. The other guys are right about the burning and overall management. But, if you don't really plan for the cover, the increase in good habitat is matched by increased use by predators. The better the habitat got when I did it, the more it looked like a damn raptor farm.
Bi-color is the best quail food you can plant, as far as desirable food gos. It is also the deadliest. They will use it, period. And in the winter, the naked branches will let a small hawk or kestrel dive right in there into a covey. I have witnessed it in action three times, pissd me off...

Bi-color is a great example of needing cover along side of the food source.

Summer burns, if you have the nuts, creates 10X more beneficial species to quail than winter burns (VanLear-Clemson). Summer is when a "natural" fire would occur, so it is logical that quail are adapted to the species thus promoted.

If you burn large areas, create islands of cover within the burn to allow for cover for any birds that might get caought out in a naked burn.

Native grasses are very effective if you get them going. Switchgrass is awesome if you get it going!

I will stop here, this is the MOST diverse topic in widlife management in the south east!
Sorry you did not get the PM, but let me know if want more detail.

[Low Country Sandlapper]

Blue darters are attracted to bicolor patches like ducks to corn ponds. They know where the getting's good.

Dead is right....the Tall Timbers/Albany Area Quail Management crowd is an excellent source of information.

[deadriver]

Yeah, tall timbers is probably the single best source of quail info. They definitely think outside of the box.

[Tigerbdog]

This is somewhat off the topic but it's also relative.

We've found that quail love soybeans just as much as deer. We always leave a strip around the fields that's anywhere from 15' to 25' wide. The hunts around those areas are always much more productive.

It would be nearly impossible to plant beans just for quail but make the most of the situation when you do have them.

[Birdfinder]

Wildlifetrends.com

Great info on quial. soybeans rule !!!

2nd year on our feeding program if i started to explain what our quail population has done it would take all day but the short of it is we got'em. We have areas for example 2 ac food plot we disc half this year and leave half standing if you do the discing in early november and then feed in the remaning cover that should be rag weed ;covey every time. Nesting , brood, feed cover Tall timbers is a very good source also I was invited to the tall timbers managers siminars on Foeshaelee Plantation North of Tallahassee great spot. They really got'em 8 to 10 coveys an hour!!!!

[deadriver]

When I was managing the farm I left at least 2 rows of corn and as much as 15 feet of grain or beans along the edges that were parallel to good cover. It was good for most all game on the place, even doves on a year round basis. But, that did not compare to when I switced to 100% no-till. My yeilds went up, soil tilth went up, and cover and food was year round througout all agricultural fields.
I did have a govt. payment on leaving the standing crops, but would have done it anyways. One or two beans can help a bird make it though about two days of cold winter weather. Good quality food is a big part of an animals ability to breed much less survive.

[Birdfinder]

Dead on it . We leave 4 -5 rows of soybeans along the fields but also we have these fallow fields in the pines that we spread soybeans in. Best thing we have ever done. The next best thing is the nest predators, fox, possum, coons, and know the posssum on a half shell. The coyote i'm kind of on the fence about they are not big on catching the quail but the will get my little turkeys and the fawns. I shootem