Bobwhite Quail

[tmvikings]

Went out duck hunting yesterday and after I was done with that I started back to the truck, on the way my Brit froze on point right on the side of the dirt road. When I did the U turn walk to what he was pointing at a Bobwhite Quail flushed. What are the odds that the bird is native or just a game farm bird? Area was 20 min south of Jordan, MN.

[Dotch]

Hard to say not knowing who might be turning them loose in that area. I do know this however, we've seen them for the past two summers southwest of Owatonna, sometimes in the cover surrounding our yard. I spent 15 minutes whistling at a little male along the edge of a soybean field back in August. It was hillarious to watch him run out, look around, whistle, then dart back into the soybeans. We know many of the area gamebird raisers and no one has fessed up to releasing them. The warm winters, lack of deep snow and the right kind of terrain (hedgerows, brushy areas, fencelines) make it possible that some could be surviving in the southern third of the state.

Here's an article from the DNR HSOforum on bobwhite in MN:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/julaug07/bobwhite.html

[yakfisher]

They used to call MN home.

[tmvikings]

flushed another quail about 15 miles west from the first one. Seeing a trend......How about anyone else !?

[uplander]

Lots of guys use quail for training and most trials that are run on pen raised birds use quail. My guess would be you are running in an area where guys have been training or some shoot to retrieve trials have been run. Fun to hope they may be making a comeback, and I believe they are trying to reintroduce them in SE MN. But I have to think these are pen raised birds.....uplander

[Walleye Guy]

I agree. My guess is the bobwhite may have been either a hungarian partridge or a pen raised training bird.

[tybo]

A few months ago one of the outdoor shows, it may have been Pheasant Forever TV or MN Bound, had a story about bobwhite quail in MN. If I remember correctly they estimated about 1,000 wild birds may still be living in MN and interviewed a guy that is retired and drives around asking if people have seen or heard them. This was mostly in SE MN but I'm not sure where exactly. It was an interesting show. My parents have been releasing 4 week old chicks back home in PA for the last few years and are seeing birds around the nieghborhood with chicks so they are multiplying but they have a very high mortality rate. They are basically wild birds now.