Pennsylvania Quail Get No Respect, but the Grouse
You've read that the turkey hunting is great up north (New England's Revisited Fall Turkey Hunting Tradition), the quail populations on the other hand are not so good—especially in PA according to the Pittsburg Tribune-Review. In fact, QF didn’t even bother to mention PA in their 2007 quail outlook. Qual season this year runs from October 20 to November 24, which is a nice one-month long season with a bag limit of four birds per day. You’ll need a lot of luck and a really good dog to reach that limit. The cause of so few quail is a lack of habitat. Quail love brushy farmland and that is almost as rare as the quail themselves. But don’t give up the faith. QF and its chapter in PA are trying to convince the Fed to pay farmers to let some of their land grow bushy. Not only will it help the quail it will help other wildlife.
Grouse in PA should continue to provide plenty of action. The PA Game Commission expects ruffed grouse hunting to be good or at least as good as last year. Last year, grouse flushing rates increased in all six geographic
regions of the state. The state wide average was 1.41 grouse flushed per hour (FPH). Here grouse FPH in the six regions last year:
- Northcentral: 1.65 grouse FPH
- Northeast: 1.30 grouse FPH
- Northwest: 1.76 grouse FPH
- Southcentral: 1.22 grouse FPH
- Southwest: 1.21 grouse FPH
- Southeast: 0.79 grouse FPH
