Packrat = Quail Thief
I have been holding off the telling of this story. This migrated Yankee had never seen or heard tell of such a thing. I’m not even sure if we have packrats or wood rats back in New Hampshire. Shoot–we don’t have armadillos either, but that is another story.
Anyway, the event being reported took place a way out in the west of the ‘Sooner’ state in that section referred to as the ‘panhandle’ on the eastern edge of a vast tract of land covered with various grasses, sage and plum thickets–an area where ‘Gentleman Bob’ lives. Apparently, it is also a place where packrats live. I mean–who thinks about packrats and quail in the same consideration?
On with what happened….
There were three sets of human eyes and at least two and maybe three dogs within eyesight and snifter range that were struggling through some of the thickest mess of brush, bramble and briar that one can imagine because it was suspected that a covey had flown into that tangled hillside earlier. There were singles and stragglers. Or just ones that hadn’t made it over the hill for some reason. The dogs were in the thick of it and struggling just as we were—about that time a bird got up about 30 yards over and left flying to the right–pretty much as perpendicular a flight path as they get. The barrels of my 20 gauge 101 went up, followed the flight path, and went just ahead when the trigger got pulled.
Mr. quail went down. Three sets of eyes marked it from the vantage of a hillside. There was no mistake– all agreed. Over the next several minutes which led to about 30 minutes of searching utilizing eyes and noses came upon a big ‘ol packrat nest. After a somewhat befuddled interchange and more searching, it was unanimously decided that the packrat stole that quail. The quail went down, much searching was done. What other possibility exists?
Beware of packrats. They will steal your birds.
Of Upland Birds, Setters and Trout 