I came across a quail hen sitting on a log in a creek. All by herself, apparently. I got as a close as I could to get a picture. Then I took another step. BOOM! The covey I never saw exploded around me.

Nice photo.

Too bad you didn't have your shotgun.

this place you go walk around in has to be one of the coolest wildlife habitats I've ever seen. is this still alligator river nwr?

Yes. I try and go as much as I can. 2020 travel restrictions kept me out of NC for much of spring and early summer. So I've tried to make up for that loss in the last few months.

Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes and Lake Mattamuskeet. If you've never explored these areas, they are worth visiting. You can go into these areas for the day and if you get out onto the trails, may not see another person, and certainly not hear a car go by the whole time you are there.

The cool part is right now the NWR is transitioning to a waterfowl habitat. They are starting to flood many of the agricultural fields for waterfowl. This winter, there will be tens of thousand of ducks, geese and swans in the fields.

Not much gets the ole heart racing much better than an unseen covey exploding under your feet does it?

I have a nice little 28ga that can fix that issue

quote:

Originally posted by fiasconva:
Not much gets the ole heart racing much better than an unseen covey exploding under your feet does it?

You're right, not much. I've only hunted quail a couple of times. But I've flushed a lot of coveys by accident hunting deer or fall turkeys. Nothing sets the heart off like flushing a covey by accident when you are preoccupied with something else.

But this place, this place has lots of quail. You'll see them running across roads, trails or through fields up ahead if you're on foot. Here's one I got a picture in July 2019.

 
Out here, we have Gambel's Quail. They are all over our property. They only fly when they really, really have to. They prefer to walk/run very fast instead.
 

Nice.

Here in SE Virginia and NE North Carolina, we also have some Chukkar Partridge. They aren't native to this area but escaped from hunting preserves and went wild. I've seen them in a local shopping center parking lot, of all places.

So glad to see you are seeing and flushing quail lately. They have about disappeared in a lot of this country and efforts to save them are ongoing. I hope it's working.

You do get some great pictures, always enjoy your posts. Here're my local Gambel's Quail behind my yard. tough to get closeups, they move off quickly, rarely fly.

I miss the Arizona quail