The 2000 Mearns Season in Review

 by Fred Arbona

    The origin of AzQA lies with last year's season (2000-2001), a season which found us, as always, hunting Mearns quail in southern Arizona during the months of  November through February. In the beginning of the season we had no indication whatsoever, we would be spending the next eight months, after the closing of the quail season, involved in Arizona Quail Alliance which of course did not exist at the time.

   During the latter half of that Mearns quail season we experienced and saw first hand the quick reduction of the bird population to the point that we found ourselves having to resort to travel further and further into the most inaccessible places to find birds in huntable numbers. Traditionally, we have for the previous 20 years not shot at birds whose covey constituted less than six birds.  That is one of our self-imposed 'rules' and the way we choose to play the 'game'. We do not impose it on anyone, though we encourage it. Because of the high survival of birds in past nineteen (19) seasons, this was a 'rule' we could follow easily.

     I personally located a total of 683 coveys during the months of  November and December (2000), an exceptional year. However, by the middle of the season, (January 5th, 2001) 534 of those coveys just simply vanished. Most alarmingly, was the quick reduction of the size of the coveys, which unlike previous seasons. In the past, the birds would be slowly reduced to 5-7 birds per covey, even on February 10th, the very end of the season. This last season however, by December 20th, most coveys were down to 4-5 birds. By January 5th, the 'covey' sizes were down to 2-4 birds. Unfortunately timing, since that is on the eve of  the coldest time of the year, when they may need a larger-sized clutch to survive the coldest weather that usually takes place during the month of January. (The "Fall Freeze" probability rises from 10% chance in early November, to 90% probability by December 28th and this probability lasts through January 24th in Mearns quail country).

   In the latter half of the 2000-2001 season, Mearns quail hunting evolved into traveling great distances every day from Patagonia, AZ to find birds in the most hidden canyons, in the thickest of country, places that are not a pleasure to hunt or to observe good dog work. Beepers on dogs became a must. I told myself at the time, that is life. During this time however, I talked to many hunters, since on many occasions there were more hunters than birds, and got their impressions and opinions of the season in general. Most express the opinion that while there were a lot of birds at first, the season went downhill in quality in a hurry.

   The fact was those birds in the most accessible areas were simply wiped out in the first four weeks of the season , and those still surviving in the remotest of places, or canyons accidentally bypassed at least for a time, eventually were significantly reduced in numbers also. There was no escape for the Mearns quail that season.

   After the season, and suspecting that "something extraordinary took place", we (Dr. Tad Pfister and I) started to talk to the ranchers and asked them what numbers of birds they saw when they moved their cattle after the hunting season. Cattle make great game 'beaters' since they tend to flush all game in their path. Their reports were alarming: they saw few birds, in numbers that did not compare remotely to previous years. I knew we were going backwards with the population of this bird. We also found out the plausible reasons why - there is no management or special protection for this bird against a possible hunting overharvest and -

                                                                                         That is when Arizona Quail Alliance started!