I gave it my best trying to kill a mountain quail over the holidays, but I remain five of six on the species native to the United States. I've added an additional hurdle on my quail slam challenge in that I want to hunt them in the mountains of Southern California near my hometown of Riverside. I might have better luck in Nevada or Oregon, but that would spoil the fun.
Unfortunately, the closest we came to finding birds were these tracks.
Here's my column on the hunt.