[skeet]

I feel there are 2 factors involved in the numbers of quail in the east. In Md the birds started going down when the government promoted taking out the hedgerows and losing the cover by edge to edge tillage. ...along with the sprays that seemed to really knock the birds down even farther. The sprays that kill the bugs is the worst for the birds as the young'uns need the bugs to grow. The next biggest problem is the numbers of predators. Trapping is way down because the prices are so bad...because the dogooders scream about wearing FUR. I killed predators(sorry to say..illegally) on my place. The darn foxes wanted to live in my barn. I trapped coons just to reduce their numbers and also caught a LOT of possums. The thing that I think really hurts in the predator lines is the winged ones. I do remember when the hunting mags had advertising promoting the killing of hawks and owls. I actually had a redtail hawk catch a quail on a covey rise one day...but owls seem to be the worst. I won't admit to killing hawks and owls but the quail population on my little farm back east was doing fine. I also had some ground in CReP and planted food patches for them. Also did no spraying with the crop land. Cultivating is an older way to take care of weeds. Had 3 coveys on 40 acres which is quite a few birds for such a small area. BUT what I did worked