Quail Flight

I don't know why but I am always fascinated by the flight patterns that various game bird species take. First off, old friend of the show, Ed Bangs, hunts Harlequin Quail, and he told me about their interesting flight pattern. "The dog will be pointing and you walk up, walk up and a couple of feet away they will kick up and fly and try and get around a tree as fast as possible. Very explosive flight and real fast and low. They live in an oak savanna, so when they fly, it is quite common that they jump and they bend around the first tree they can. When you think about the revolution it makes sense. Let's say a hawk is after you, that's a pretty good strategy." Another old friend of the show offers an interesting insight into Quail flight. This time it is Randy King. "Quail are interesting because when you stop, that's when they will fly. Because if you keep an even pace up they can calculate so a good hunting technique with quail or any upland game bird is to stop periodically because that makes them nervous and they will run. When we get to a fence line we always have someone cover us as they are crossing the fence with a loaded gun because that's when something is bound to run. As soon as you are pushing down on barbed wire and about to jump over it something happens to fly. I've gotten several quail when my buddies were trying to cross fences.