Dr. Dan Foley

By: Dr. Dan Foley For decades, traditional VHF radio telemetry has been one of the most important tools in quail research. VHF collars allowed researchers to relocate bobwhites, estimate survival, identify general habitat use, and find nests that otherwise would have gone undetected. That technology built much of the foundation…

by Dan Foley The Mexican ground squirrel is easy to overlook. It looks like a small, striped, harmless seed-eating rodent often seen in short grass, roadsides, grazed pastures, and field edges. But its diet tells a more complicated story. Scientifically, the species is best described as an opportunistic omnivore. It…

By Dr. Dan Foley By May, most quail managers are asking the same question: What kind of quail year are we setting up for? It is a reasonable question, but it is also one that deserves a cautious answer. Spring gives us clues, not conclusions. At the Rolling Plains Quail…

By Dr. Dan Foley A young bird dog coming into your string—whether it’s 10 weeks or six months—is less a blank slate than a partially written manuscript. Your job isn’t to start over; it’s to read what’s already there and avoid editing out the parts that matter. For the upcoming…

Late Winter Nutrition for Quail Late winter on the Rolling Plains can look like a nutritional dead zone—dry grasses, bare ground, and a landscape that feels stuck between seasons. Then a timely February rain hits, and almost overnight, cool-season forbs and grasses green up. Depending on your country, that may…

By Dr. Dan Foley Over 4–5 days towards the end of January, Winter Storm Fern moved through Texas and much of the South with a familiar suite of stressors: hard freezes, wind, sleet/freezing rain, and intermittent snow. A winter-storm disaster proclamation was issued on January 22, 2026, and expanded to…

by Dr. Dan Foley Texas quail hunters have officially taken to the field, the 2025–2026 quail season kicked off on November 1st. Conditions across much of the state this past spring and summer were highly favorable for quail reproduction, resulting in strong nesting success and robust brood production. Reports from…