Quail Hunting in Kentucky

By Tony Englert

Falconry has been a part of my life for more than 27 years now. I became interested in falconry through my high school French teacher back in 1970. He, like most falconers, could be easily persuaded to talk of the outdoors and of the trials and tribulations one encountered while training a hawk. This was very interesting to me, much more so than learning the parts of speech in the French language. Another teacher at my school was also a falconer. These two teachers were both Xavierian brothers, part of a religious order in the Catholic Church. Both teachers living arrangements were different. The first brother lived away from the school with other teachers in a house, where he kept his hawk. The second teacher lived on campus and kept his hawk right in the courtyard of the school for all to see. It was this hawk, a red-tail, that caught my eye. One afternoon it was visited by two kestrels that took turns diving and stooping at the perched out red-tail. When I saw this, I was hooked and knew this is something I wanted to pursue.

Jake on John's fist

As follows I got my falconry license and my first bird and my life as a falconer had begun. I soon got to know other falconers in the city of Louisville, where I lived. For many years to come I hunted first red-tails, then Harris Hawks, and then on to the accipiters. Those years were spent hunting with many of the same falconers I hunt with today. Our game that we hunted consisted mainly of rabbits and squirrels. We found an occasional covey of quail, but as of late the inner city construction had all but run the quail out of town.

Louisville is known as a “Big Little City” with a population of about 300,000. The population of the surrounding counties brings the metropolis area to a population of about 1 million people. With all of the growth going on in our city, there are very few areas to practice falconry. One area that in the past, yielded 400 or more rabbits every year taken by the falconry community as a whole, has been reduced to a few small acres too close to fences and expressways to safely hunt. With such limitations the serious falconers in this area have started to travel farther out to find good hunting spots. Several falconers, including myself, have purchased an Indiana hunting license to take advantage of fields to the north.

Jake prepared for a quail flush

Over the last three years, I have started hunting with an old friend. John Hofmann, my hunting partner first came into my life when I was a cocky young falconer at the age of 23. John was visiting a neighbor of my parents where I lived, and had seen my birds perched out in the yard and called me to ask some questions. I gave John a lot of credit for taking such interest, even though he was only 10 years old. For the next three seasons I picked John up on Saturday morning and took him hunting with me. We had lots of fun catching bunnies with my goshawk. After those few years, John dropped out of my life as I pursued my hunting and he pursued his education. We occasionally talked but it was not until a few years ago that John came back into my life as a falconer and good friend. John is now 31 years old. He and his wife are both practicing lawyers in our community. John has spent a few years flying a red-tail, Cooper’s hawk, and now his first tiercel goshawk. At times he was ready to pull his hair out, trying to figure out just how to get the goshawk turned on to chasing game. My female goshawk Emma took rabbits with ease. We started taking the rabbits from Emma alive and bagging them for John’s tiercel Jake. Finally Jake caught on, and began catching rabbits all on his own. His speed was impressive to say the least. He got to the point that he could catch the first rabbit flushed, and then could be flown again to catch another. We knew that Jake was capable of more, so we decided it was time to pursue other game with Jake and Emma.

Jake in hot pursuit of quail

One weekend in February, my hunting partner John and I decided to try something different for a change in our weekly hunting activities. My female gos Emma has taken all the rabbits I care to chase this year, and Johns tiercel gos Jake has finally figured out how to get a rabbit by the head. Numbers don't mean a lot to either of us, however in Jake's case of being a first year eyas numbers can reflect how the training has gone compared to the success ratio. At any rate the season is quickly coming to an end, and we wanted a little variety for our birds. Another falconer told us of hunting in an area in western Kentucky and of flushing several coveys of quail. This sounded interesting to us so off we went driving the 180 miles to this field. The field was located on the southern edge of a small city in western Kentucky. This area had lots of tall grass fields, mixed in with housing developments, businesses, and some small industrial areas.

The particular field we had been told about was located directly behind a motel, so we decided to get a room and relax in anticipation of the next morning's hunt. At sunrise the alarm sounded and both John and I rose quickly for the hunt. We went downstairs for a quick breakfast and then out to the car to get the birds. John's German shorthaired Pointer, Hunter, was already running the tree line in anticipation of the hunt. We quickly put the telemetry on Jake and started walking the tree line. Hunter flushed a rabbit that cut back towards the motel with Jake in pursuit. It managed to go down a hole and Jake took stand in a tree. Once Jake was back on the fist, we again worked down the tree line towards a field with waist high grass. Hunter worked out into the field and started looking for scent. As we stood watching, a covey of birds got up and flew straight towards John and Jake. As they passed, Jake picked one out and was in hot pursuit. He put it into cover along the edge of a small group of trees. John got Jake on the fist and sent Hunter in to flush the bird. The bird got up quickly and again Jake was in hot pursuit. Both birds started across the grass field when all of a sudden the quail dumped into the grass. We picked up Jake and sent Hunter to again find the bird. We knew that this would be one tired quail, and we really wanted to find it. Before we knew what was happening, Jake was off behind us. By the time we turned around Jake had taken a rabbit that had flushed under our feet. This was good and bad at the same time. That was Jake's 20th rabbit of the year and he handled it easily (something he wasn't capable of earlier in the season). We were not sure how that would affect him as far as chasing the quail. Once John got him off of the rabbit and he had settled down a little, we sent Hunter in to find the bird. Hunter did find the bird and tried to grab it with his mouth. Hunter has not been into birds much this year and has forgotten how to hold point. I reached in and flushed the nearly exhausted quail into the air. Jake took it easily on the rise. This was not very spectacular, as we might have wished for a longer flight and then a caught bird. However, Jake deserved his bounty after 2 very good chases on the same bird. John fed Jake a little and we returned to the car for my Emma.

Jake preparing to bind to a quail

When I got Emma out, we decided to head across the open bean field to a clump of grass out in the middle. Nothing turned up there, so we next headed to a large grassy strip adjacent to the open field. As soon as we entered the field a rabbit got up and Emma was off in a flash. She made a fast flight coming up directly behind it. The rabbit cut to the right to head for some briars and so did Emma. We saw her hit but did not hear a squeal. The grass was too tall to see what actually happened, so I assumed she missed. I casually walked to her only to see that she did not miss. The rabbit was caught, but never screamed. That was a good start, and I traded her off and proceeded to continue to walk the field. After about 30 yards I was wondering if we were walking too fast, because there were lots of droppings but no bunnies. I slowed down and walked over into shorter grass. Just then quail started flushing all around me. Emma took off chasing the first birds up back towards the trees and briars we had just come from. More birds got up and flew the opposite direction to a tree line. Emma pitched up in a tree directly above where the quail put in. When I approached I saw large boulders stacked along the edge of the field from bulldozers. It was evident that we would not be able to get these birds back up again, as they probably were down in the holes in the pile of boulders. We had left Hunter in the car fearing he would be a distraction for Emma. We continued to walk the field and got up one single quail. Emma just watched as this bird flew off. After another flight on a rabbit that eluded her in the tall grass, we decided to leave the field, avoiding the tree line where the rest of the birds had put in. We were going to return with Jake and Hunter to try to find those birds.

As we approached the car we passed an opening in the fence which led to another cleared bean field. A 10-foot wide strip of grass went across this field. John and I decided to walk along this strip hoping for another rabbit sitting out in the sun warming himself (it was 20°F out). Half way across the field John pointed to a quail set. I liked seeing that and we continued to walk. About 20 feet past the quail set a covey of about 15 birds got up at my feet. Before I knew what was happening, Emma had managed to launch off of the fist and catch one on the rise! She landed about 15 feet from me and as I watched the rest of the covey fly across the field I said 3 times "She got it, She got it, She got it". John was laughing all the while. He asked me if maybe I didn't believe that she caught it. I must admit, I was very surprised. We let her eat it all on the way back to the car. It was getting close to the time when we needed to leave.

Back at the car we got Hunter and Jake back out to try for the birds in the tree line. We got many good flights with Jake, but not another kill. Unfortunately, Hunter was not holding point. He would run in and the birds would flush. I had hoped to get some of these chases on video to show later. Jake made several long flights on quail; usually ending with the birds put in to heavy cover. Hunter was getting tired and was having a lot of trouble finding the birds for the reflush. Hunter did managed to grab another quail with his mouth, and in the confusion another rabbit flushed. Jake missed the rabbit, and we weren't able to reflush the quail. We headed back to the car with many long flights on quail with Jake burned in our minds. Both birds had caught a quail and a rabbit, which exceeded our expectation by far. As we drove the 180 miles back home John was already asking me when I thought I could return. I hope it will be soon. Whenever it will be, it won't be soon enough.

We did manage to return a few weeks later. We found out a few things on that trip about quail hunting. It had been raining heavily prior to the day we went to hunt. The day was warm and dry, but the fields were soaked with water. Due to the warmer weather our birds needed to be a little lower on weight. Emma would not even chase the quail. She would lean over as though she wanted to go but would not. On one occasion I urged her off the fist only to watch her fly to a tree. Jake did a little better, putting in some decent flights on quail. He ended up sitting in a tree line, then started chasing rabbits from the trees. Hunter kept the rabbits moving and Jake kept flying them out of the trees. Though this was entertaining, he wasn’t catching them, as the cover was very thick. At one point Hunter went on point with Jake sitting right over him about 15 feet up in the tree. We told Hunter to flush, which he did. A single quail flew straight up very slowly right in front of Jake. Jake had his mind on rabbits though, and just sat there. We could not believe it. If this had happened on the previous trip, Jake would have easily taken it. That unfortunately is why falconry is a bit of a science. Weight control needs to be fine-tuned when the prey species changes. We learned a lot from that trip, so hopefully next season we can adjust weight properly for the air temperature and again be successful.
A few weeks later I had the opportunity to go to a field trial for Red and White Setters. These dogs were originally bred as falconry dogs, and the organizer of the trial wanted us to put on a demonstration for a large group. I flew Emma as well as my tiercel Cooper’s hawk Buzz and all attending got to see a hawk chase quail. These were not wild birds, so they tended to be a bit slower. We were invited back this next fall, and we will graciously accept. John and I plan to go to the trial first, to hunt the somewhat slower released birds. After a good weekend catching released birds, we hope to travel down and pursue the wild coveys located in western Kentucky.

A little note about myself. I am 45 years old and have been practicing falconry for 28 years. I have been married for 13 years and have 2 sons. Warren, my oldest son is 10 and Scott is 7. My wife Mimi works for the local school board, as a job placement coordinator for special needs students. I work for Süd Chemie Inc., a chemical company, where I have been employed for 21 years. I work in a laboratory conducting research and development on one particular product, used in making MTBE for reformulated gasoline. I have been an avid soccer player for more than 30 years, though at my age my participation has slackened off. I have attended many NAFA meets, including last years in Amarillo, Texas. I was past president of the Kentucky Falconers Club. Our club unfortunately has disbanded. The majority of the members still hunt together, just not as a formal club. Kentucky is open to nonresident take for raptors, and several people come for Cooper’s hawks and Sharp shinned hawks every year.