Montezuma quail

I'll just own it because I should have known and seen it.

And then December 4th is Mern's quail to February 7th.

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I think what that'll equate to, that'll be good news for Gamble Quail because it'll result in the spring green-up that they need.

But it'll also probably improve your dog performance on Mearns Quail because, again, you're so dependent on those... on those dogs to find Mern's quail, any conditions that improve their ability to smell birds is a good thing.

And so we had looked, when we did our Mern's quail surveys, we were doing dog surveys for research, and we looked at it, we looked at the weather, we looked at humidity and temperature and looked, looked tried to figure out if there was a correlation with the number of coveys you were finding and there really wasn't a strong correlation but I think the big the big difference is so our what we were looking at was just the number of coveys so detecting a covey might not be as enhanced by improved scenting conditions But finding those singles after the covey flushes, I think the dogs do a lot better on those when the conditions are right, when it's not hot and dry.

Welcome to On the Wing podcast presented by Purina Pro Plan.

Today, Quail Forever journal editor Ryan Sparks returns to the podcast to tackle the 2026 Quail Forever quail hunting forecast presented by Duck Camp.

Thank you Duck Camp for, uh, being a partner in the first, um, quail forecast that, uh, Duck Camp's been around for.

So thank you to Duck Camp.

Uh, like the pheasant hunting forecast that, uh, the national treasure Carp assembled.

The local yokel, we'll go with that.

Yeah.

Uh, but like the pheasant hunting forecast, the Quail Forever quail hunting forecast does a in-depth state-by-state prospectus for the season ahead.

Um, and so I would say for scaled quail, really it's trying to preserve these, these native desert grasslands as much as possible, making sure that invasive grasses aren't, aren't taking over these grasslands at the rate they are, trying to figure out, um, techniques to, to, um, or, um, project or applications to, um, sort of keep these desert grasslands native.

And then when it comes to Mearns quail, really, I mean, it's hard in terms of like direct Mearns quail projects for, for building up that habitat.

I mean, if you don't get monsoonal rain, you really...

Mearns quail aren't as distributed and don't really have the numbers like, um, Gambel's quail do to really s- sustain those populations if there isn't a bunch of, I guess, well, I shouldn't say a bunch of, but good monsoon precipitation.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, in terms of like specific examples in the Mearns quail world, like Mearns quail reside in, in the oak woodland Madrean habitat, and kind of what we're seeing in those areas i- is like the introduction of, um, like bark beetles or, or bark fungi in those oak woodlands that are, that are killing a lot of oak trees.

And so trying to work with other agencies such as like the forest, um, to figure out practices, um, of trying to sustain those oak woodlands as much as possible, as well as you're seeing a lot of juniper encroachment in a lot of oak, um, habitats, which are choking out a lot of oaks.

And so trying to back or back down those junipers through, through hand thinning operations, um, and really just trying to keep these habitats, um, as they're supposed to.