"As far as management strategies in dry years, be mindful of your grazing regime. Try to leave suitable amounts of nesting structure." (That usually means bunchgrass clumps.)

Even in dry years, ranches west of Fort Worth still have quail, although fewer than would be typical in a wet year. The region as a whole is managed well, as landowners appreciate the income from deer and quail hunters. Ranchers who know when to reduce stocking rates and to rotate cattle and who maintain properties that feature plenty of waterholes and offer supplemental feed will be the ones with quail. Done intentionally or incidentally, these things benefit quail as much as they do livestock or deer.

I asked TPWD biologist Jeff Bonner in Pampa to elaborate on quail management in drought years, and to remark on recent wildfires.

"For management in dry years, you have to keep in mind what quail need," he said. "Dry year or wet, they will always need a balanced mixture of tall grass, weeds and scattered brush. The nesting cover comes from grass that was grown the previous year and was not eaten by a cow. Proper stocking rates using a rotational grazing system is the best way to ensure nesting cover as well as encouraging proportional weed growth.

"If you want quail, never spray weeds. Those weeds provide green, leafy groceries in late winter and early spring, attract insects during spring and summer (chick food), and then provide seeds through fall and winter. Scattered brush provides hiding cover from predators and cool loafing cover during summer. That's the same quail recipe I'd recommend for a wet year.

"So what I'm saying is: Plan for dry and enjoy the bounty of wet.

"The fires were a train wreck for all ground-nesting birds," Bonner went on to note. "Prescribed fire is a very valuable and important tool in quail management -- but this was no prescribed fire. These wildfires did not burn a mosaic: They burned everything. It consumed around 750,000 acres in the Borger and I-40 fires and covered large portions of Hutchinson, Roberts, Carson, Donley and Gray counties and smaller portions of Ochiltree, Hemphill, Wheeler and Collingsworth counties.

"Along the perimeter of these fires, I would expect a great increase in quail numbers (even in current drought) because those birds will have the benefit of nesting cover and the regrowth of vegetation in burnareas. However, in the interior of those fires, they're out of luck. Each fire was about 50 to 60 miles long and around 10 to 15 miles wide -- well outside a quail's home range."

Brothers Michael and Marc Haggar, of Dallas, have been passionate quail hunters for 20-plus years. Having seen great quail years as well as sorry ones on the ranches they hunt near Abilene, they shared some thoughts on hunting during dry times.