The 2020–2021 hunting season for wild quail was another great one in the Red Hills and Albany Areas and across the Southeast! Locally, some properties had one of their best seasons on record. Additionally, properties in the Carolinas, Alabama, and Central Florida observed high covey finds for their respective areas, further increasing landowner interest in wild quail hunting opportunities. What facilitated this year’s successes? Overall, hunt success is due to a combination of good cover conditions, high bird carryover, and favorable scenting conditions. Clay Sisson, the Director of the Albany Quail Project and Livingston Place Research further provides the following reflective thoughts and future perspective:
This “bull market” has been the result of excellent management helped along by good summer weather, high cotton rat numbers, and a widespread new ground effect, as a result of cleanup following the 2017 tornadoes and hurricane Michael in 2018. We documented these high-density populations back in the fall, but it’s always interesting to see what the hunting season brings. Despite a warm and dry forecast, we had great weather most of the season. Abundant rainfall and cool temperatures made for good hunting condition’s right up until the last week of February. These high densities and good hunting weather made for a memorable hunting season that was at or near record levels in some cases.
