Mearns’ Quail--It's the Grass!

by Dave Lukens

There are some flat areas with Mearns' quail--but they have to have grass.

The Rolling, Oak Woodland Birds

.....First, there are classic Mearns’ quail. You’ve probably read about them. They inhabit the rolling oak woodlands, which I view as oak-studded grasslands, and probably comprise a lot of the birds brought to bag. The terrain is fairly gentle and the bottoms fairly wide. In good times, when the bottoms are not overgrazed for two or more years in a row, there will be enough birds that hunters can stroll these areas and get plenty of action without heavy physical exertion. I found a place like that near the San Rafael Valley in the late 80’s. I hunted south of Parker Canyon Lake this year and had a relatively easy hunt for a change.

.....Notice I said easy hunt--there was nothing easy about the shooting. There were always plenty of oaks and junipers to get in the way and these birds did not venture at all out of the wooded areas. My guess is you know all about these birds; holding tight, the diggings, oxalis bulbs, loose soil, the oak overstory required, good grass cover, etc. Well, there are some other Mearns’ quail out there...

Feathers retrieves. This is not a "cliff dweller"--I've never been good enough to shoot or photograph a cliff dweller!

The Cliff Dwellers

.....When I venture too high, I end up hunting the cliff dwellers. I hunted them on purpose the first two times--this last time was an accident. I just wanted to cross the ridge and hunt back down the next valley. When I topped out and looked down, all I saw were the steep terraced sides with three to four foot cliffs, covered with dense manzanita and oak thickets. I went way too high up the valley before crossing. Oh well, maybe the cliff dwellers will make a mistake, I thought. It would be the first time, though.

.....I clawed my way down through the clinging brush into the narrow valley bottom and walked hunched over, under the oaks. The branches kept yanking my hat off but I kept putting it back on. Heck, I’m bald and need the protection. The dogs worked under the manzanita on the first ledge above me and it didn’t take them long to find the cliff dwellers. One dog was pointing up on the edge of a small grassy clearing. I couldn’t climb straight up. I had to wind my way up through the manzanita, crawling at times, but I eventually made it to the edge of the clearing and next to Jack who was pointing like a statue on top of a rock pile. The other three dogs were backing Jack from both above and across the little patch of grass. I had them this time--the cliff dwellers finally made a mistake! But they did not come out. The dogs would not move. So, I cautiously inched down the rocks into the clearing, trying to maintain good enough footing to shoot. Out they came. Ten or so cliff dwellers flushed, but they only hopped over the manzanita bush 15 feet above me and landed on the other side, too close and too fast to shoot. The dogs ran through the manzanita after them and had several more points, but the thickets held me fast by my vest and the birds always escaped without a shot being fired. The next time I hunt the cliff dwellers, it will be by accident...

David in the boulders in the 80's...

The Boulder Birds

.....Well before I read where Mearns’ like to live, I hunted an area I would have overlooked if I had "book knowledge". From way up on the mountain, a ten foot deep cut ran straight down for a quarter mile as if it had been dug with a giant steam shovel. It was 15 feet wide and had big boulders piled up on each lip. It descended steeply then started a gentle right turn before opening up and spreading it’s water over a wide hillside covered with sheets of flat rock. It looked too interesting to pass up.

.....On the climb up over the flat rocks, Pete pointed a single male Mearns’ that flushed early. The old Fox double made the long crossing shot almost by itself. I was surprised to see that bird--no trees and very little grass. Encouraged, we kept climbing up into the narrow crevice.

.....Pete pointed several coveys of birds in deep grass right in the narrow bottom next to the trickle of water. The birds would fly up and over the boulders in a flash, providing no time to shoot. On the way back down, we hunted next to the cut in the junipers/oaks and shot a few birds. I made a poor shot on one that kept going strong, leaving only the smallest puff of feathers floating behind. Pete scrambled up and over the boulders after the bird and disappeared. We sat down and had lunch while Pete did his magic. More than twenty minutes later, he came back over the boulders carrying the big male Mearns’ quail.

Pete returns with the Mearns'!

Seamus with one of the "carnivores", full of insects in December.

The Carnivores

....."It’s too dry and the ground is too hard. There used to be birds up there, but I didn’t see any scratching", Al said. He is an experienced Mearns’ hunter and he was right. Loose soils and diggings are key signs. But, I told him I still had found some birds up there.

.....I seldom see diggings in this area anyway. The grass is tall and thick. A Forest Service biologist I know would say, "The grass is way too thick. The quail can’t walk around and there aren’t good food sources. You need cattle grazing to promote oxalis grass, it's bulbs are their main diet". Well, these birds didn’t read that book. Last year, some birds had several half inch acorns in their crop! No oxalis. Or, they were full of little sections of roots. No oxalis. And this year, they were all nearly full of insects--grasshoppers and other bugs. Carnivorous quail! No farming for these birds. I even heard some quail had eaten maggots from a cow carcass. I think these birds adapt to available food sources better than I’ve been led to believe. Maybe someday they’ll develop a taste for beef...

Jack points in the octillo cactus, far from the oaks. Notice the grass...

The Ocotillo Birds

."Dad, look! Pete’s on point up in the ocotillo!", David exclaimed. Jeez, he was on point. What the heck are they doing in there, I thought. We were hundreds of yards from the nearest oaks with very few tufts of tall grass around large sheets of flat rocks and only thin ocotillo for top cover. No way. I doubted Pete, one of only three or so times I doubted him in 12 years--I was wrong every time. I don’t remember if we got any, but I do remember the birds. Lots of birds. We called them the "ocotillo birds". They were great sporty birds--lots of fun for us and few casualties for them...that year. Too little rain, too many cows and the birds were gone for many years...

.....Why were they there? Flushed into there? Dining out? I didn’t know back then. This year, I flushed some birds that went from thin oaks straight to an ocotillo thicket like it was preplanned! OK, they flushed and went there. But then, the dogs locked up on another ocotillo hillside a quarter mile or more from the nearest few oaks. While I walked around the pointing dogs, I saw the diggings. Everywhere. Fresh, old, and in between. This was part of their covey home range, thought to be only 15 acres for Mearns’! The only top cover was ocotillo. Yep, you’re right, the grass was deep. "Ocotillo birds". Pete always liked them...

"This is the Year!", says AGFD. With proper grazing practices, Mearns' hunting would not have to be boom or bust.

"This is the Year!"

.....That is what Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) says about Mearns’ this year. Well, it’s a good year for several reasons. Two years of light winter rains may have lowered winter mortality--and it also lowered the water in cattle tanks. Reasonable summer rain and grass production with reduced cattle numbers due to this lack of water, in many cases, meant good cover throughout the breeding season. I think the "two years" is most important when I read the literature on Mearns’ quail. It apparently takes a year with good cover for a breeding pair to randomly move back in to a previously bare, overgrazed area. The year after that, if there is still cover to survive, they breed. That’s where we are this year. It is not due to a major management change on the Coronado, although there have been some grazing reductions. It was the weather--Lady Luck. If we continue with the same grazing policies, when the next drought hits, and we have official recorded drought almost half the time in Arizona, bird numbers will go right back down to where they were when the Commission drastically lowered the limit and called for a study. Of course, this recent study proved once again the limit has nothing to do with bird numbers. It’s the habitat.

.....Folks at AGFD correctly state that in the "good years" you will find Mearns’ quail in unexpected places such as mesquite. True enough. But I say it’s not the fact that it is a "good year"--it’s the grass. Although AGFD and the USFS have built a picture in our minds of classical Mearns’ oak woodland habitat, I think it is simply that the birds retreat there due to overgrazing. Better overstory means less grass cover required. Give ‘em the grass, and they’ll be in places you would not believe. If you are an accomplished Mearns’ hunter, forget the "limit" for a while and go see where else the birds can live. I think you’ll enjoy it--and you’d better while you can, "This is the Year!".