My nephew, Billy Van Veckhoven, poses with his first quail which was taken during our annual Thanksgiving quail hunt near our family farm in Louisville in 2014.  That yearly Thanksgiving hunt was a tradition started by Billy’s grandfather and namesake Billy “Pop” Hull.  I wish Pop were here now to celebrate the three wild coveys of quail that now call the farm home.

It’s remarkable how certain sounds trigger memories.

When I hear a mourning dove cooing, I am instantly transported back to my childhood, lying in the bed with the windows open on a summer morning or standing beneath the large oak in my front yard waiting for the school bus all the while listening to those soothing sounds drifting down from the limbs above.

These days, I love to sit outside enjoying a cup of coffee and listening to the peaceful mating cries of the doves. Those calls will forever be a sound of the morning for me.

Evening sounds in the days of my youth were the sounds of the cicada and the bobwhite quail. I have enjoyed the cicada symphony quite often in the late evenings this summer and I am excited to report that I have, with increasing regularity, enjoyed the distinctive “bob-white” whistle as well.

I am most excited by those bobwhite whistles as it means a return to the farm of a species that was once abundant in our state. Those whistles were once commonplace, and seeing and flushing wild coveys in the hedgerows and farm fields surrounding my home was a regular occurrence as a child.

These days, however, the northern bobwhite is still listed as a threatened species with a population in decline throughout much of the Southeast. According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, “Bobwhite quail populations have declined substantially in Mississippi during the last 50 years.”

Habitat, or more accurately, the lack thereof seems to have been the chief culprit in this decline. According to the MDWFP, “Abundant quail populations were once a byproduct of agriculture.” As our land use practices changed, so did the population of the bobwhite quail.

Fortunately, proper habitat restoration has resulted in a comeback for the bobwhite in many parts of the Magnolia State. Landowners interested in restoring quail to their property have excellent resources to aid in their quest.

On our small farm, we have begun to implement several of the recommendations from the MDWFP and the Mississippi State University Extension Service. According to the Extension Service, “Ideal habitat consists of a balanced mixture of bare ground, native clump grasses, annual weeds, woody cover, and seeds and insects for food.”

While we have not made any drastic changes, implementing a few of these recommendations on a small scale seems to have made a big difference. Last fall while deer hunting, I regularly flushed a covey of quail from the cover areas near one of our food plots.

Furthermore, most evenings this summer we have been serenaded by the sounds of bobwhites in the thinned pines behind our house. I am hopeful that this singing signifies another covey in the block of timber that borders our home.

Outdoors writer Gene Hill beautifully captured the essence of the bobwhite. In the words of Hill, “A quail call is a melody from a little gentleman…part of the harmony of a summer’s evening.” That harmony gives me hope that we are making a difference.

Sunday evening, I was given another sign that this noble bird seems to be making a comeback at our place. I had spent the afternoon clipping food plots in preparation to plant them for the fall and as I mowed the road on my way back out, I caught movement ahead of the tractor.

Bringing the tractor to a stop, I watched as first one and then ten to fifteen quail zigzagged across the road into the cover along the opposite side. I sat on the tractor smiling at the thought of what was certainly the second covey on the property and, assuming the whistling quail behind our house is not alone, perhaps, the third covey.

My father-in-law, Billy “Pop” Hull loved wing shooting. In fact, quail hunting was an annual tradition for us the week of Thanksgiving. Those quail, however, were pen raised and released prior to the hunt. As I made my way out Sunday afternoon, I continued to smile thinking about how happy he would be to know that we now have multiple wild coveys on the farm.

I’ve often written about the circle of life and our part in it as hunters and caretakers of this earth. I can think of no greater reward as a steward of the land than seeing the fruits of that effort. The whistle of the bobwhite quail is now a testament to that for me.

Until next time, I look forward to seeing you out there in our great outdoors.

Email outdoors columnist Brad Dye at braddye@comcast.net.