We had a great trip to Arizona hunting Montezuma quail. Montezuma quail are also known as Mearn’s quail and they are spectacular. The best part about the trip was seeing the huge variety of habitats in Arizona; from the arid Sonoran desert cactus-lands to the higher elevation southern grasslands. Some of the desert plants were really awesome, like this agave pictured below.
The hunting was difficult. We were told by several sources that Arizona had two back to back banner Mearn’s quail years and this year was the best on record. We were told to bring a good book, because you’d have your limit before noon, seven to ten coveys a day, and so on. So were really pumped. The hunting wasn’t as promised. We had to cover a lot of country to find one to three coveys a day. I think the hard hunting made every bird that much sweeter. We all found quail and got some really nice specimens for mounting. We had some really awesome dog work and really nice points.
The scaled quail were a different story all together. Because we struggled finding the Montezuma quail, we didn’t shift over to scalies until the last afternoon. We saw four coveys as we were pulling into our hunting spot. The dogs went crazy with scent, but the little feathered devils just ran circles around us.
One of the really fun parts of the trip was that their late dove season (through January 4th). We were able to shoot several limits of mourning doves, with a few Eurasian collared doves mixed in. Man were they tasty. All told, we had a nice trip, got some trophy birds and saw an awesome diversity of desert country.
Gambel’s Quail Habitat
Mearn’s Quail Habitat
