I can see a MasterCard commercial of the very near future:

• Shotgun: $650
• Bird Dog and Training: $1,000
• License Fees, Gas, etc.: $300
• Actually finding a bobwhite quail: PRICELESS

As a lifelong Oklahoma bird hunter, it pains me to see how quail populations have dwindled in our state in recent years. Virtually all of the quail hunters I know have been singing the blues for the past few seasons, especially in 2007, but the hunting in 2008 wasn't much better.

Eastern Oklahoma bird hunting is almost history, with a few notable exceptions on large private land holdings where birds and habitat are intensively managed.

Western Oklahoma, which for the past decade or so has probably had the best remaining bobwhite hunting in the nation, has had some tough times since the new century began.

Quail and other ground-nesting birds have been plagued by either too much or too little rain during breeding and nesting seasons. Nests either wash away in local floods or are exposed to predation because drought limits vegetative cover. And there isn't a thing the Wildlife Department can do about those conditions.

There are those hunters who advocate shorter seasons, lower bag limits and other changes to limit the harvest. But the department has surveyed hunters in the past and found that, while hunters complain about declining bird numbers, only a minority wants to impose shorter seasons or smaller limits.

So all us bird hunters must play the hand that Mother Nature has dealt us.

John Hendrix, a private-lands wildlife habitat consultant for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Tulsa, says both the erratic rainfall patterns of recent years and the declining amount of native grasses are the two biggest problems with quail recruitment in Oklahoma. Hendrix did the same sort of work for the state Wildlife Department for several years before joining the federal agency. He also is a lifelong outdoorsman and an Osage County native.

Besides the negative impact of rainfall patterns in the past few years, Hendrix said, the conversion of thousands of acres of land to "improved" livestock grazing pastures with Bermuda and fescue grasses, as opposed to native grasses, has taken a heavy toll on quality quail habitat.

"In the eastern half of the state, that's the biggest problem with quail habitat," Hendrix said.

Many landowners express concern over the declining numbers of quail and have good intentions of "taking care of my quail," as they put it. But the economics of ranching outweigh the concern for quail, and merely placing a feeder or two for "the house covey" isn't enough to keep quail populations thriving.