Mearns Season Recap.

    Slick retrieves a Mearns Quail (Note the garbage in the foreground from Illegals)
The Arizona Quail Hunting Season ends on the 7th of Feb. this Sunday! I wish it would go to the 15th like other States ..but it is what it is .
Unlike previous seasons the 2009 -2010  Mearns Season can go down on the books as  "interesting " or" realistic ".

                                                                  Spot on Point
This  season was interesting in many ways .coveys where found where there was decent Monsoon rains,which only happened  in a somewhat  small area  or strip of the Coronado National Forest ,which  is where most of the hunting takes place.In some cases the covey size was  2-4 birds others where 6-8 birds indicating a varied hatching or nesting success rate. The birds where  small  due to a late hatch and  lack of food ?? .Elevation did not play a role in locating   the birds  as  I found birds in open flat country and along the sides of mountains. This year the key was attitude not altitude. Hunters that  dug deep ,worked hard and approached the season for what it was surprised themselves, hunters that did not do the math ended up going home   and blaming the lack of Mearns Quail  on Overgrazing ,Bin Laden ,to many Guides and the Recession .
It is safe to say that this season resembles what a Mearns season should be like for Covey numbers, with the exception of the numbers of birds in some of the covey's (Mearns Covey's should average 8 birds this year the average was 5)  the Covey's would also be more distributed throughout the range , this year   the birds  where concentrated in  a small area.
A good friend is coming   from Phoenix tomorrow. He will  be delivering   my AYA 20 gauge which has been at the Gunsmith's getting bored out and the stock bent .
Needless to say I am very much looking forward to getting out with the new gun  and the B team who along with  the "Old Guys" have been sitting on the sidelines.
I am already looking forward to the 2010 -2011 Quail season, we have been receiving a ton of  rain which is going to help the Desert Bird recovery and to some  extent the Mearns Quail. 
Once the Season ends the dogs and I will conduct our regular training runs,then we have  our Mexico Hunt.  I will do a little   Skeet shooting and a few Eurasian Dove and Pigeon shoots but for the most part the guns will be cleaned and put away, and the Fly -Tying material will be coming out .

         A good day in the Field for first time Mearns Hunters from Montana