This might well be the return of the iconic bird, but if not, hunters may as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Story and Photography by Bob Zaiglin

As a brisk north wind smacks you squarely in the face, one’s normal reaction is to avoid the cold, but that’s not the case while quail hunting. The incessant search for that next explosive covey rise keeps one comfortably warm as the calories burned up in the search generates an adequate amount of body heat.
Walking along overgrown, age-old fence lines, one’s sixth sense dictates the presence of quail, but nothing can prepare a hunter for the eruption of these plump birds skyward in their attempt to escape. And as this feathered bomb goes off, sportsmen with scatter guns shouldered attempt to drop a bird or two before the covey drops out of the sky and gets swallowed up in a sea of brush and dash off on foot to safety.
It’s now February in Texas, and as another deer hunting season is in the books, sportsmen have an opportunity to celebrate the season by spending additional time with family and friends pursuing a game bird that in some cases is rarer than a trophy buck.
Often referred to as the sport of aristocrats, quail hunting is a gentleman’s sport often conducted in ideal weather conditions. It’s just as much a spectator sport when well trained dogs are part of the hunt as it is a social event. For wing shooters, this February represents the tail end of a banner year for quail, while for others it is a unique opportunity to test their shotgun skills on these birds and hopefully return to camp with enough birds to dine on one of nature’s true delicacies.
When it comes to bird hunting, the bobwhite reigns as king. The characteristic bobwhite song heard during the spring breeding season dictates its name, and no bird is revered as much as this pear-sized bird in the scatter gun fraternity.

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