Episode #47 Arizona Quail Season Recap

We trace a season defined by a record-wet fall and a record-warm January, and how that mix changed quail behavior, calling, and our tactics in the field. From flow-state shooting to pairing biology and clutch sizes, we share wins, setbacks, and a practical plan for the offseason.

• wet fall boosting seed and cover across desert habitats
• warm January compressing movement windows and scenting conditions
• gambel’s calling shifts from “Chicago” to courtship notes
• pairing, clutch size ranges, re-pairing and polygyny dynamics
• hunt highlights in classic Gambel’s country and a snowy desert morning
• sparse birds, older age class, and heat-driven adjustments
• simple quail cooking and honoring the harvest
• outlook for rains, juvenile recruitment, and possible regulation shifts
• offseason dog training and community meetups

please consider making a tax deductible gift visit us online at azquiltoday.com and be sure to follow us on social media for the latest information and updates

Connect with us: Email us at ryan@azquailtoday.com —we'd love to hear from you! 
Follow us on Instagram at @azquailtoday

Transcript

Welcome And Season Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Air Zemana Quim today. Your go-to pump games for all things Quim hunting in Arizona. We're dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of Queen hunters. A big thanks to our supporters and Put partners. Airzemina Outdoor Adventures, others in the field, and marsupial gear. Thanks for tuning in. Now let's dive in today's program.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Alright, welcome back to another episode of Arizona Quail Today. I am in the studio today, and it's a little quiet, so. Okay. Just kind of rolling things along. A few moments later. So we're gonna have to keep ourselves awake, but guess what? It is the end of quail season. Oh no. Terrible. What are we going to do? Okay, I hit my quota on pushing buttons.

unknown 1:08

Man.

A Wet Fall, Hot Winter Frame

Season Plans And Tough Hunts

Classic Gambel’s Hunt Highlights

Flow State In The Field

Snow Day Gambel’s And Mearns Notes

Weather Stats And Impacts

Sparse Birds And Heat Challenges

Warm January And Bird Behavior

Calling, Pairing, And Biology

Clutches, Polygamy, And Re-Pairing

Reflections, Cooking, And Age Class

Outlook, Regulations, And Rain Needs

Offseason Plans And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Okay, so what's this episode gonna be about? Well, here's the title A Wet Fall, Hot Winter, Arizona Quail Season Recap. Okay, so first of all, welcome all of you that are joining us. I am delighted and grateful. It's been a great quail season, tough hunting, but a great, great time outside. Today, here's what we're gonna be doing. We're gonna be recapping Arizona's quail season and share some of my favorite hunts, what the weather did, what I was seeing, um, some of the bird behaviors, they're calling, pairing, clutches, and even the quail relationship drama. So, quick mention usually wet fall and record setting warmth around January, Phoenix, Arizona, and why that matters for quail. So I'll talk a little bit about that. Wet fall, record setting warmth and all that. So, okay, so glad that you're here. Um, I think, gosh, I just I literally, my closing hunt was just a bummer of a hunt. I I'll I'll lean into this bummer hunt in another episode next week. I'm trying to get these out on Friday about midnight. Like, yeah. So they're up and going for your podcast in the morning. Um yeah, just a tough, just a tough hunt, and somebody was snaking my spot, and it was bad. It was a Saturday, quail season closed on a Sunday, and guy just took my spot, and then he I she gave him space, and then he crept in on me. So I'll I'll get to that on another episode. But um in this deal, we're gonna kind of move through some just some of some some some cool stuff. So uh I'll tell you a little bit, just some season recaps. I had just an awesome experience hunting Gamble's quail on various occasions this year, even though we had some really tough times. So um, I'll tell you about a few of them. So classic Gambles Quail hunt. Um, gosh, I went out into this area, beautiful, like prickly pear everywhere, nice good vegetation, cool morning, um hunted hard, and maybe got a few birds, about put up uh put put down one dog, rotated another dog in and out, and then um scenting conditions were a little um I think they were a little more favorable that day. This was early on in one of my early hunts, and I pulled out Happy, my young dog, on I think there was the second, the second or third, I think it was the second hunt of the morning. So I kind of like move around, and I put them out on the ground, and man, we bump a big covey. It's 20, 30 birds. And um some people said to me, they haven't seen those numbers. But I mean, I did. I there were certain times, and I've heard another great report just yesterday about a guy telling me he bumped into several cubbies of 20, 20 birds or so. Um now, here in the towards the tail end of the season, I I did not see that as much, but my buddy did. I didn't. Um, I saw them starting to split up, which we'll talk about in a minute. But on this hunt in particular, it was earlier in the season, bumped a nice big cubby, probably about 30 birds, I'm gonna say. And I think I already had probably three or four birds in the bag. Anyway, we get out and we scatter these birds, and it is just like a heyday. I mean, we move through some beautiful terrain, beautiful scenery, and me and my bird dog, happy, he is just throwing up point after point after point, and I'm making shot after shot, and I am just like I you know when you're like in the mojo, like you feel like you know the flow is happening, like you know there's some kind of flow happening. Um, well, that's what was happening, and I was making shot after shot. I don't think I made any doubles that day. Um, but we were putting birds in the bag, and it was really cool. Like it's it's pretty cool to see. So um that idea of flow, it's called like mental flow, just FYI. It's called uh it's a psychological state where literally your mind is fully absorbed in what you're doing, focused, energized, operating at its best. The concept was named and studied by Mihalai Chisha. Okay. So I totally butchered that name. Most people recognize it instantly when it's described, but it's like total focus, effortless effort, time distortion, clear purpose, high performance, low, low self-consciousness. You're you're not overthinking anything, you're just like boom. Flow usually happens when you challenge and skill are balanced, like when challenge and skill are like balanced. It's like if it's too easy, it's boredom. If it's too hard, there's anxiety. If it's just right, there's flow, baby. And so it happens in hunting or shooting at times. It can happen through coaching, teaching, deep study, reflection. It happens happens with athletics, and so it's a good thing. So um, when you get there, like I'd say get there in shooting too, like when you're out in the shooting range, or you play golf, maybe, you know. Like I'm not playing golf. The closest thing I do to golf is Ben Avery's clay targeted shooting range. So, yeah, if you hit a golf ball my way, I might shoot it. That'd be sweet. Um, but that is flow. And anyway, so I'm out doing this hunt, and I'm in the flow zone, and so is my dog. Like I dogs hit flow too. It's pretty cool. So that was gambles hunt. That was probably one of my favorites. And then the other big gambles hunt that was a lot of fun was in the snow, and that was later in the season, and it was just nasty weather came in, and then we hunted in the snow, and it was just cold morning, but just making some really good shots. Had some decent dog work that day, beautiful uh landscape, beautiful mixture of high desert with snow. Oh, it was a ton of fun. Had a bunch of, I think Dan Priest was on that hunt. I had my younger brother on that hunt, I had my young son on that hunt. We just had a good time and uh had an awesome experience. I didn't harvest a ton of birds, but had a lot of fun. And then another hunt was I'm gonna just say it was a Merns hunt, and it was a tough hunt, lots of hiking, but I got into some Merns and and you know, was able to harvest a bird or two, and we had a great time. And uh just the terrain and the habitat, the seeing the oaks and seeing the more of the the grasslands, and uh just beautiful, and just hearing the rush of the flush, just too much fun. So, you know, and then there was the tough hunt. Um, I didn't hunt any scalys this year. I hunted in some scaly country, but I didn't hunt scalies this year. Uh I didn't harvest any. Um had guys that were along with me in the day that did, um, but I didn't. So anyway, I hunted the most populous bird this season. How about you? Um tough hunts. I had several of those. Just it was just birds were sparse. The heat was hot, it was hot and just tough. So anyway, and I'm gonna get back to another episode, good versus bad hunter, and just dealing with some punks out in the backcountry. So I'll tell you about when I slashed their tires and shot peppered dirt truck. Okay, I know I didn't I didn't do that. I wanted to, I wanted to, but I uh I exercised restraint, so um it's not worth it. I'm good. I don't need any more drama. So uh transition, let's talk transition. So those were some of my favorite days in the field, just highlighting some of the things, but behind every hunt was the weather, and that story really shaped this season. I mean, think about some of the simple weather stats for the fall record and and for the winter heat. So it was the wettest fall in Phoenix Valley history. Phoenix had its literally its wettest fall on record, meteorological uh fall from September to November, with about 6.3 inches of rain at Sky Harbor, almost four times the normal average fall average. So there was flooding everywhere, lots of insurance claims, lots of danger, loss of life. It was it was it was catastrophic, would would be a fair word, um, in some places. September, October, November totals 2.26, 3.26, and 0.79, respectively. So this is like that that's almost our whole average of annual rainfall packed into the fall. That that's how you need to think about it. So, what does that mean? Well, for quail, heavy rainfall improved drought conditions and produced a lot more green up on grasses and throughout the desert and high desert and all around the state, and seeds in many areas, which are critical for quail cover and food. So for reproduction, timing still matters, and late rains help habitat um and carry birds, but um early spring and summer moisture is key for nesting and broods, and so um typically for quail, like uh for desert birds, it's the winter rains that affect the quail populations, and then the uh monsoon rains for the Merns quail. So uh we need some more rain, and I think some rain is forecasted in the next week or so, and so that's good uh throughout the state. So but what's crazy is this is while we've had some of that rain, we've had some unbelievable warmth in our state too. So we've had uh gosh, let's see what what some of the rains have been like. Um well, not the rains, but the heat. Uh we've got uh in the record level warmth in January. Phoenix broke a daily heat record around the start of February, hitting 85 degrees, beating the previous record of 82. January 2026 finish is one of the warmest. Uh January 2026 finishes one of the warmest on record with an average temperature of 61 at Sky Harbor. So, I mean, we've had historically wet fall and then rolled straight into a record warm January. So that's how you can just take it like super wet fall, and you could count a bunch of that for winter rain for quail, which will help. Um, but a really warm January. So warmer winter temps can again extend insect activity and some food availability. It can also shift when birds move, feed, and call their more early or late movement in the day, midday shutdown, and the warm spells. I saw that many times when it was really warm. The birds were just like in the shade, chilling. So we had a desert. I mean, we had a desert that exploded with green in the fall, and then in January it felt more like April. And so how does that kind of year hit a little covey of gambles, you know? So, okay, let's talk quail biology. Let's talk about calling, pairing, clutches, and then males repairing. So um, well, I talked to a couple guys. I talked to Kirby Bristow, uh you know, former uh employee, Arizona Game and Fish Commission, and Randy Babb, former Arizona Game and Fish Commission guy. And these are small game biologists, once a biologist, always a biologist. And uh, we chat chatted a little bit just via text and talked about some of this. So some of the information I'm gonna share is um thoughts and uh um pieces of nuggets of truth that they shared with me that I'm sharing with you. And if it diverges too much, I'll try to uh clarify um what they said and what I said. So um anyway, so when it comes to calling, um gambles, you know, I was out there calling for Gamble's Quail and use that typical that Chicago call. So um you're probably familiar with it. If not, you can just Google it on YouTube. But uh they they started I mean Gamble's quail are pretty chatty and uh they're pretty distinctive. And I've played it on I think the last episode, you could listen to it. But they quit calling and at least at least some of the locations I was hunting in. I I know not necessarily everywhere, but they quit calling. There's regular Chicago call, and they would do this lone solo little call. Like, and it was like you're calling there it's a mating call. I see I'm gonna see if I can try to actually replay that clip again, because I've got it on the Instagram, and I'm gonna see if I can play it for you. Here it goes. You can hear those. You you could hear those uh the morning dove, but you could hear those other. I mean, that's what I was hearing. And and those calls that that video I posted was a spring uh video where they're they're excuse me, they were all loading up on uh splitting up and pairing up. So the males are generally more populous, and so they're looking for females and they're out calling and looking for girlfriends, and so I heard that everywhere I was going. So I'm calling the Chicago call, and I hear the the male gambles quail calling like that. It was just nuts. I just never seen that before. And and maybe you have, but I think it was Randy or Kirby. It was like first in his lifetime as well to see this kind of you know, all this weather extremes, like the massive level wet rainfall, plus this record level heat. And so it's just kind of tricked the birds into the like thinking it's springtime. So they move to breeding calls from males. They become they're more pronounced as the days lengthen, the conditions line up for pairing and nesting. And so if you listen in late winter into spring, you'll hear the desert sound different and those cackles and calls or quail talking about territory and romance. So I think they're pairing up in mating, is what's going on right now. Gambles quail typically pair up in late winter, early spring when they sh when they shift from covey life and deforming breeding pairs. And studies show larger males often win the contest. Big old boys looking good. And they get the first shot at the females. What do the females look for? Body size and condition, how serious they are. So that's uh interesting. There is a possibility that some of these males are going to, you know, go find an additional mate, you know, so mate with one female um hen and then move on to the next. So it it's possible. So and so there could be a male that is responsible for a couple different clutches, you know. So a clutch is a full set of eggs, birds lay in one nesting attempt. Basically, one batch is uh in a nest. And for desert quail like gambles, typical clutch sizes often run a range of 10 to 15, um, sometimes more in good years. So good moisture and habitat can encourage the larger clutches and more successful broods. Um, drought usually means fewer successful nests. And so anyway, it's pretty cool. Males just might be finding another mate, they might move into some polygamous patterns. We'll see. That that could be good. There could be like a multiplying impact on this early heat thing going on and the early rainfall. So some birds stay stable in social pairs for the season, so they're not gonna be jumping around. Like, hey, you know, I'm just I'm not gonna be I'm gonna be monogamous. Others might be like, hey, I'm a polygamist. And uh they're gonna find some more more ladies. So anyway, you got Bad Bunny in the halftime show. you got you got some crazy birds out there getting multiple ladies so uh females have been documented abandoning uh a mate after hatching and then repairing to attempt a second brood this implies males uh two males two can end up with new partners within a season that's interesting uh but in a more simple way to put it in a good year a good habitat year with plenty of cover and food you can see quail reshuffle patterns and attempt to multiply their broods um they're wired to take advantage of good conditions so anyway when you hear that covey calling at daylight there's a lot going on territory pairing eggs repairing uh more drama in that little wash than you might think so you never you never know you gotta think like a bird free as a bird that's a good song that that song gets played all the time too like um on in quail like videos free bird I mean it's a it's a classic song though so I mean who doesn't love it a little leonard skinned for you right now it's a long song nine minutes that's pretty good we're just gonna listen to this the rest of the episode so just joking all right closing reflections let me just share with you a couple of things so uh how did I feel about the season feel what a qualitative word not quantitative um how did I feel about it uh I would say it was the wettest fall I could ever remember I mean it it flooded everything uh and it was the hottest January I can ever remember and quail hunting's still fun still doing what I love to do um but you know what I'm saying it's uh it was it was spotty spotty I thought I would say so that's not easy um I think for hunters you know um we're stepping into just realizing like don't take it for granted enjoy the days you got out there um you know um just make the most of it you know I've got a quail I need to clean today and uh cook it and just enjoy even if it's if you're not getting ten birds at least you got a couple and eat what you kill. You know I've been really enjoying a lot of the food that I've been preparing. I've been just if you don't know how to simple clean quail or whatever you just clean the quail I've got videos on the YouTube and Instagram I think you could check all that out. But uh you know cleaning those birds and then just you know you could you can uh marinate them and like um just put them in some salt water or something like that. Um salad dressing if you wanted to do that for 24 hours eight hours. You don't even have to do that but if you wanted to you do that that's what I do oftentimes usually salt water and let them sit for anywhere from usually eight to twelve hours and then take them out and then put some uh oil in a pan cook them up with some salt and pepper it's really really good really really good so um yeah I mean the season overall again man it was a warm season uh it was a wet fall and we had several poor winters going into this so what does that mean it means that we had a low stock of birds going into this season so they're smarter harder to hunt fewer young birds there wasn't tons of juveniles so you you can check the age of the birds by looking at their covert feathers and you could tell these are these are mature birds we're shooting and they're pretty smart and so now is the time where they should they're pairing up quick and they should get after it and hopefully they've got plenty of food and plenty of green on those um ground ground cover for them so hopefully hopefully it goes pretty well so time will tell I do think we need some more rain and uh it's just gonna take some time but we ideally you have consecutive winters uh that are wet to really impact the quail population and so you know time like I said time time will tell and uh for the Murns quail I mean we just we need some really good monsoon rains and I think that's probably been the hardest has been the Murns quail and so I would expect as well a shift and change in Arizona Game and Fish Commission uh hunting season regulations um season dates I I think that's what you're going to see so anyway apparently we've got some rain coming in maybe next week um so we'll see how all this goes but um we need some more rain and if you are connected with Arizona Gaming Fish and you kind of know some of the um things that are going on there uh and want to talk I'd love to talk um I'm not gonna uh try to stir a big ruckus or whatever but uh definitely it'll share my thoughts and opinions and give you insights as to I as to I learn about them uh so that'll be interesting we'll talk about that in the future this off season we're gonna be looking at all sorts of game dog things uh uh gun dog things I'm gonna be doing a couple fun hunts with our fathers in the field guys be taking them out I'll be doing some dog training with guy Molicone and I got a number of other guys that are interested in in doing a little Saturday meetup and uh we'll have fun doing that I've got some book projects I'm working on right now so I'm a pastor as well so I'm tied up doing some of that but I'll be trying my best to crank out podcasts for you and again my goal would be is trying to drop those on Friday at midnight. So I schedule them. So anyway if uh yeah you got some interesting buddies or somebody that wants to jump on the podcast love to be able to share the microphone have them call in or come hang out be really good we'll get Nate back in the studio we'll talk about a hunt that we did together and uh all the the post uh season stories or something like that. So it'll be a lot of fun. So yeah other than that you know uh put in for all my other big game stuff I'm gonna be doing dog training uh I guess I'll just be counting down the days again until the next quail season man oh man well it was a good one it was a lot of a lot of fun meeting some new people getting out some new country and experiencing the great outdoors so till next time we'll see you soon get outside thanks for listening and how further our work please consider making a tax deductible gift visit us online at azquiltoday.com and be sure to follow us on social media for the latest information and updates.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Until then remember to get outside