Game birds flourish this season in Arizona

If someone were to choose a word to describe the upland game bird season in Southern Nevada, that word would be disappointing. During the past few weeks I've visited with numerous hunters who, despite spending considerable time in the field, have found few Gambel's quail or chukar partridge.

If you've been around this part of the country for a while, you know this is nothing new. Bird populations tend to follow a boom-and-bust cycle. We are in the bust part of that cycle, but hopefully we'll receive more rain between now and March than we have the past couple of winters. Several storms like the one we had last week would do wonders for bringing bird and other upland game species back up to the boom category.

Those winter rains do the most for quail and chukar populations because they determine how much food the birds will find when the reproduction cycle starts in the spring. The more food, the better the hatch will be. In good water years, quail might hatch two clutches of eggs. Let's cross our fingers and hope for the best.

In the meantime, the fact we are struggling to find birds here doesn't mean you have to put that shotgun away until next fall. The word out of Arizona is this could be the best year in decades for hunting Mearns' quail. That season, along with Arizona's second dove season, opened Nov. 23. Yes -- a second dove hunt.

Arizona is home to three species of quail -- Gambel's, scaled and Mearns'. According to the Arizona Game & Fish Department, the Mearns' quail is the state's most prized game bird, and the southeastern corner of the state is the place to be. Unlike the other species, Mearns' rely on summer rains to bolster their reproductive efforts. Since southeastern Arizona received an abundant amount of rain the past two years, officials believe this could be the year of the Mearns' quail.

I've never hunted Mearns' quail, so I had to do research. Mearns' are larger than Gambel's and scaled varieties. They are described as tight-holding birds that take advantage of their oak-grassland habitat to hide from hunters and their dogs. Their tendency to hold in cover has made them popular with those who hunt over pointing dogs.

Hunters potentially could bag all three quail species in areas in Cochise County, including the Chiricahua Mountains, Dos Cabezas and the San Bernardino Valley.

Randy Babb, a Game & Fish Department biologist, said the stock tanks in this part of Arizona are full of water and ducks. He recommended bringing along nontoxic shot shells just in case.

The daily bag limit on quail is 15 birds per day in the aggregate. No more than eight of those can be Mearns', so leave a wing on your birds for identification purposes.

If you didn't get enough shooting in during Nevada's dove season, you can get another chance by taking advantage of Arizona's second dove season, which runs through Jan. 6. Most of the white-winged doves have moved into Mexico, but there are plenty of Mourning and Eurasian doves.

• BOY SCOUTS FUNDRAISER -- The inaugural Las Vegas Sporting Clays Classic, a fundraiser to benefit the Las Vegas Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, will be Feb. 2 at the Desert Lake Shooting Club in Boulder City. At last report, 45 shooting teams have signed up for the tournament. The event was created as a means to replace $325,000 in funding that in the past had been provided annually by the United Way.

Call 736-4366 for more information.

Doug Nielsen is an award-winning freelance writer, and a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. He can be reached at doug@takinitoutside.com.