After enjoying the success of my On the Wild Side newsletter for the past 14 years, I've decided to opt for an electronic version; it will focus pert near exclusively on quail. Unlike OTWS, TeamQuail will only be distributed electronically. Issues will be sent whenever I've accumulated enough info to pass along to you. The style will be very informal; just a quick way to get information out.
If you wish to be dropped from this initial distribution list, please let me know. If you have folks who would like to be added, pass their e-mail addresses along to me, or just forward this communique to them. Distribute it as you see fit.
TeamQuail web site in prep
Along with PhD candidate Troy Sparks, and with funding from Texas Council of Quail Unlimited, I'm in the process of developing a "TeamQuail" website. For such, I've been doing some net surfing with quail in mind and hit on some interesting sites you might like to take a look at. They include:
http://www.amesplantation.org/video/clip02.html Neat footage of a Cooper's hawk preying on a bobwhite
http://www.ttrs.org/research/bwqvideo.html Similar video footage from Tall Timbers Research Station in Florida; also check out their info on predator control relative to quail numbers
http://www.dnr.state.ga.us/dnr/wild/game_mgmt/bqi.html GA's quail initiative
http://www.ckwri.tamuk.edu/quail-symposium/ Details about Quail V; the fifth national quail symposium which is slated for Corpus Christi Jan. 23?27, 2002. (Symposium registration is $125 through January 4, 2002 then increases to $175 thereafter and at the door)
http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/05-01nr.htm#Committee hopes to increase quail populations News release from OK about stratetic plan for quail there
http://www.noble.org Noble Foundation (Ardmore, OK) has a great plant ID gallery; features most of the quail plants found throughout Texas.
http://texnat.tamu.edu; TEXNAT website features a lot of quail poop; soon we'll be adding photographs of key seeds found in quail crops. Poster available now (Key Seed Producing Plants for Quail) available here.
http://www.mbr?pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/; if you wonder where we quail types come up with figures like "bobwhites have declined 4.7% annually in Texas since 1981", the data can be found in the Breeding Bird Survey; another source of trend data is TPWD's annual quail forecast. Trends for the 2000 season are found at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/hunt/regs/quail/.
http://agweb.okstate.edu/pearl/e904/index.html OK's Habitat Evaluation Guide for Bobwhite Habitat
Troy's personal webpage is http://tamug.tamu.edu/~sparkst/troy.html. Beginning next month Troy will be relocating to one of Ted Turner's ranches near Truth or Consequences, NM to begin his fieldwork following 100 blue radio-collared blue quail.
If you have some good quail sites that should be included on the website, please let me know.
Quail license plates
Attached is a WP document that illustrating vehicle license plates from OK and LA that feature quail. URLs for more information are attached. I understand TX will be increasing their offering of wildlife plates soon; deer and bass are among the offerings, but not quail. If you know of other states that offer quail license plates, please let me know. A sample plate from OK is available for $27; check with Misty Hill at 405-521-2468.
Texas lands new quail expert
Dr. Lenny Brennan is the new "quail chair" at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville. Brennan comes to TX from the Tall Timbers Research Station, which is world-renowned for its focus on quail matters in the southeastern U.S. Brennan's 1991 paper on the demise of bobwhite populations throughout the bird's range served as a wake-up call for many of us in quailology. Brennan will be working with other faculty at CKWRI (Fidel Hernandez, Bill Kuvlesky) to coordinate quail research efforts in south Texas. Lenny's e-mail is lenny.brennan@tamuk.edu.
More help on the way
Dr. Dean Ransom (d-ransom@wtamu.edu) will be onboard Jan. 1 as the new research scientist at the TAMU Research and Extension Center in Vernon. Dean has considerable experience with quail, having worked for several years at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Researach Institute earlier in his career. Dean's appointment will be 75% research, and 25% extension. Also, candidates will be interviewed soon for 2 positions at the TAMU Center in Uvalde. I hope one or both will have strong quail backgrounds and/or interests. Opportunities abound at both locations for quail-related research/management.
Whistlin' Dixie
Did you see Dear Abby's column last Sunday entitled "Professional whistler missing heyday of fast-disappearing art"? I could relate. Identified only as "The Whistler" from Jenks, OK, the writer lamented the fall from glory of whistlers who performed for such TV themes as Lassie and the Andy Griffith show. I'm trying to revive the art, ala quail whistling. At the Bobwhite Brigade, we've now implemented a quail calling contest. Several cadets from the 9th Battalion of the Rolling Plains BB competed in the youth division of QU's Nat'l. Quail Calling Contest last month in Dallas. Bobbie Shea Bounds (age 16 from Electra) earned grand prize in the quail calling, and Ben Biddle (age 16 from Dallas) earned first in the "Horns & Feathers" division. Yours truly claimed first prize in both events in the adult competition. Unlike most of the other contestants, I do most of my calls a capella. Drives my wife batty on long trips.
Area quail trends
Got some rain around here last week (about 3" here in San Angelo). Quail numbers appear to be "bimodal" this year; some areas are going to be amazingly good (given the weather); but others less than 20 miles away are woeful. I ran my dogs Sunday evening on my lease about 20 miles north of San Angelo and pointed (er, flushed!) 5 coveys in one pasture about 100 acres in size; 2 of which had >25 birds. In contrast, the Angelo State "farm" where I've worked my dogs for the last 8 years has a pitiful population from what it had as recently as 2 years ago; covey size less than 10 birds when you find one. Have heard good reports from several ranches in Fisher County also.
Texas Quail Index
Another aspect of the TeamQuail website will eventually include a "Texas Quail Index" that reports updates from various cooperators who will be conducting call counts, dummy nests, and roadside counts, plus existing information from TPWD and Breeding Bird Survey. If you know someone who might want to participate as a cooperator, have them contact me. We'll be hosting a training sessioin sometime next spring here. I'm always interested in receiving your observations/reports on quail happenings in your respective area of the state. I conducted some spring call counts and "dummy nest" transects on my lease north of San Angelo earlier this year. Heard an average of 4.3 roosters per stop. Dummy nest success was nothing short of incredible; only 3 of 36 nests were destroyed after 4 weeks. I'll be summarizing data from several other sites for a future missive.
Desert termites
A group of TAMU range scientists and entomologists gathered here at San Angelo recently to cuss and discuss the exploits of the desert termite. This highly procreative cousin of the subterranean termite has (along with drought and overstocking) wreaked havoc on much of the rangeland in west Texas. If not for the skeletons of little barley and pepperweed, and a moderate blanket of broomweed, much of the quail range in this area would look like Kojak's head. (See the Bobwhite Brigade cadence of the month (below) for appropriate prose on quail cover via prickly pear and broomweed). Plans are being made to initiate efforts at estimating the extent of the termite's range and their impacts on grazing lands. Have any of you ever seen evidence of quail eating these critters? I never have. They seem to be overlooking a veritable bonanza of protein right under their feet.
Texas Cooperative Extension
The Texas Agricultural Extension Service recently changed its name to Texas Cooperative Extension. A rose by any other name . . . More details at http://texasextension.tamu.edu/.
Bobwhite Brigade prints available
Thanks to artist David Drinkard of Beaumont, the Bobwhite Brigade has its own official artwork (suitable for framing). Drinkard's print of a covey rise behind pointers (I've got to get him trained on the proper dog!) is available for a minimum donation of $20 to the BB. Contact Helen Holdsworth (h-holdsworth@tamu.edu) for availability. For those of you involved with a QU chapter or similar fundraising event, perhaps we could get you to auction one of them off at your next banquet. Thanks to Gerald Stewart (jswc@flash.net) for underwriting the cost of printing for the BB's version. A companion print is also available for the Buckskin Brigade.
Quail of Texas postcard
Speaking of artwork, have you seen the Bobwhite Brigade's Quail of Texas postcard? It features the 4 species of quail found in Texas, and is courtesy of wildlife photographer Dick Wilberforce of Canadian. Check it out at http://texnat.tamu.edu/Bobwhite_Brigade/postcard.htm.
BB listserve available
If you want to keep up with the exploits of the Bobwhite Brigade, you can subscribe to a listserve at http://communities.msn.com/TexasBrigades/_whatsnew.msnw. Slides from this year's camps are available for viewing.
Adopt-a-Quail
When I began a research appointment with TAMU back in 1998, I told my bosses I wanted to work on quail. "Fine" they said, "work on whatever you like as long as you can raise the money to do it!" Not long thereafter, I came up with the idea of "Adopt-a-Quail". Quail can be "adopted" for a price of $250 each, or a covey of 10 for $2,500. The money raised goes into ongoing radio telemetry research efforts on quail in west Texas. Sponsors receive a picture of "their" quail, named at their request, and statistics of its fate (e.g., movements, reproductive success). Harvey Smith of Cotulla was the inaugural foster parent of a radio-collared quail. Contributions are tax-deductible. Approximately 200 birds will be available for adoption next spring.
Quail dates
Upcoming Quail Appreciation Days are slated for Aug. 31 (Childress; t-trimble@tamu.edu), Sept. 7 (Elephant Mt. WMA - Alpine; l-boswell@tamu.edu), Oct. 10 (Andrews; m-dabovich@tamu.edu), and Oct. 16 (La Grange;l-nickel@tamu.edu). Check with the local county Extension agents for details of the QUAD in your area.
Chaparral Wildlife Management Area field day slated for September 20; my topic is brush management for quail. Check with Chip Ruthven at cwma@vsta.com for more information.
Oklahoma City Sportsman's Club has invited me up for a presentation at their annual banquet on Friday evening, September 21. Contact John Mayer (jd_meyer@swbell.net) for more information.
I'll be speaking at the Dallas Independent Bird Hunter's Assn. meeting at the Bass Pro Shops in Grapevine on October 2. For more information, contact Chris Milburn (cmilburn@fmbank.net)
A 2-day strategic planning session for quail management in Texas is slated for Oct. 17-18 here in San Angelo. Over 40 quail stakeholders have been invited to begin formulation of a strategic plan that addresses research, education, and management needs.
Trichomonas implicated in dove die-offs
Numerous reports of dead mourning doves have come my way this summer. Perhaps a record year for the protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae. Doves become infected at feeding or watrering sites. A puffy throat region usually contains "caseous" (i.e., cheesy) masses and the bird eventually suffocates or dies of thirst/starvation. There is speculation that the increasing population of white-winged doves may be serving as a carrier for the disease. Domestic pigeons also serve in that capacity. And there's a growing number of an exotic dove called the Eurasian collared dove. It's about midway in size between a whitewing and a pigeon.
Recent publications
Rollins, D., and J. P. Carroll. 2001. Impacts of predation on northern bobwhite and scaled quail. Wildlife Society Bulletin 29:39-51.
Slater, S. C., D. Rollins, R. C. Dowler, and C. B. Scott. 2001. Opuntia: a prickly paradigm for quail in west-central Texas. Wildlife Society Bulletin 29:713-719.
Wildlife disease field manual
If you're looking for a good reference on wild bird diseases, here's a bargain. Check out the USGS' Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases at http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/pub_metadata/index.html. The hard copy costs $48, but it can also be downloaded from the Web in Adobe Acrobat files.
Motion-sensing cameras
If you looked at the Tall Timbers and Ames Plantations video clips above, you can marvel at some of the technology that's available today for spying on quail (and other critters). Several years ago Fidel Hernandez did his MS research using motion-sensing cameras to monitor nest depredation of quail and wild turkey (see Hernandez et al., 1997, Wildlife Society Bulletin 25:826-831). Recently, Billy Higginbotham, Ken Cearley, and I conducted a short program on using such surveillance technology for monitoring wildlife. Newest on the scene are digital versions for less than $300; we just acquired some, but I haven't had the opportunity to put them through their paces yet. A handout that provides a partial listing of the camera systems is available.
Cadence of the month
At the Bobwhite and Buckskin Brigades, we've drafted "conservation cadences" to which cadets march. They serve as a good tonic for quail crooners on hot afternoon in June along the banks of the Clear Fork of the Brazos, or in the heat of a Dimmit County July. This issue's tribute is to prickly pear.
"Many ranchers do declare,
they've got too much prickly pear.
It's a thorny plant that they despise,
but it sure looks good through a quail hen's eyes."
Pledge to broomweed
Per Emerson's question "and what is a weed but a plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered" comes a special tribute to broomweed. I've always considered broomweed to be the best predictor of a quail crop in the Rolling Plains. I penned this while at the 9th Battalion of the BB. There I had cadets form a circle around me while holding a broomweed over their head, and recite the following:
"I pledge allegiance to common broomweed,
and to the taxon for which it stands.
One canopy, overhead, continuous,
providing usable space for all."
I'm looking forward to cooler weather ahead. The dogs are getting restless; Zugunruhe is what they call such pent up energy in birds that await the urge of migration. We await you November.
May the games begin.
DR
