This time of season long on quail lookin’, short on quail huntin’

During the past several weeks I have spoken with or received e-mails from several frustrated hunters who are looking for those one or two honey holes that might still hold a few quail or chukar. Unfortunately, I don't know of any such places. Not in Southern Nevada, anyway.

In my experience, hunting our local birds this late in the season is generally tough because they have been hunted and chased for nearly four months. They tend to get up well out of shotgun range or put their heads down and scurry down the windiest, mesquite- or cat's claw-cluttered draw they can find.

These seemingly innocent acts are enough to make even the most grizzled hunters say things that would make their mothers gasp in disbelief and their spouse cover the kids' ears.

And that's when you can find the birds. There's just no telling what might happen when you don't.

Last year, I went out quail lookin' with a couple of friends during the last week of the bird season. We were hoping to do some quail huntin', but you can't call it that unless you find them. Until then it's just quail lookin'.

We looked for two or three hours before we happened to see a small covey of quail as we were driving between lookin' spots south of the Walking Box Ranch near Searchlight. The birds were feeding in an old corral about 50 yards off the dirt road, so we pretended we didn't see them and drove right on by. Our hope was the birds wouldn't realize we were just pretending not to see them and would keep feeding in the corral until we could make it back.

A quarter mile or so down the road, we stopped where we hoped the birds couldn't tell we were no longer pretending not to see them. Now we were huntin' and no longer lookin', so we grabbed our guns, woke the dog (lookin' can be so tough on a dog) and closed the truck doors as quietly as possible.

We stuck to the road so we could move quickly and not sound like a herd of cows moving through the brush. Of course, when you wear a size-14 lookin' boot, that's easier said than done.

We turned down an old two-track and crept up on the corral, but when we jumped out from behind what was left of the wooden fence there wasn't a bird in sight. So with Maddy sniffing the ground out front, we began to work the brush on the far side of the corral. She acted birdy, so we kept huntin' until Maddy finally wheeled around and ran down a sandy wash covered with quail tracks. It had been so long since Maddy had cut such a fresh track that she couldn't hold back and took off after the birds. Right behind her were my two young friends.

"You go on without me," I called. "I'll stay here and do some lookin' for a few singles."

Awhile later, Maddy found me waiting in the shade of a tall Mesquite. I guess she decided it was time to do some quail lookin', too. While she and I each drained a water bottle, we could hear the others calling back and forth as they were lookin' for birds that probably had left the county before we reached the corral to begin with.

A little later, my friends realized they had been lookin' rather than huntin', so they came back and we went elsewhere to do some more lookin'.

We did manage to get some huntin' in and came home with a few birds, but it took a flanking maneuver to cut the birds off and force them to fly so we could make our shots. Guess those birds hadn't learned there was a difference between lookin' and huntin'.

• SHOOTING PARK VOLUNTEERS -- The Clark County Shooting Park is looking for volunteers to serve in a variety of programs, including trade show representatives and line safety officers. Also needed are people to assist with the women's and juniors programs.

Volunteer training is scheduled for Feb. 21. For more information, contact Kristen Stetzenbach at (702) 455-5894.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His "In the Outdoors" column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at doug@takinitoutside.com.