Housekeeping
Howdy to the new subscribers! Please forward on to others who seek the companionship of quail whistles and bird dogs. I'm adding a couple of new features beginning with this edition: (1) Plant, (2) Seed, and (3) Bobwhite Brigade Cadence of the Missive. You might be interested in printing these off and beginning to collect your own plant ID and seed reference manual.
I will attach various files as either .pdf, .jpg, or .rtf formats. I presume you'll tell me if these don't work on your various cyberportal.
Preacher Paul's Precautionary Professions
I don't always sleep in church. Two things I've picked up from my Preacher Paul recently are his admonitions that (1) "now I want y'all to know I'm not mad at any of you", and (2) "you're free to choose your actions, but your not free to choose the consequences." Warning #1 means if the sermon hits close to home and riles feathers, don't take it personal. Warning #2 means you're in charge of your own fate, and largely of that of the quail on your property. Caveat emptor: Preacher Paul's Professionary Precautions are invoked for this, and all future, TeamQuail missives.
A Quail's View of Bovinophilia
Warning: Re-read and recite Preacher Paul's Professionary Precautions before proceeding with this topic.
Livestock grazing might be the single biggest factor affecting quail habitat over most of Texas. I used to say brush control, but I think grazing is more widespread, and perhaps more pervasive, in its effects on quail habitat. A silver bullet holds that "where you stand on an issue usually depends upon where you sit." Understand my bias; I'm writing from the perspective of a quail hen.
Research suggests that the best predator control for enhancing nest success is indirect, i.e., provide a quail with 300 suitable nest sites per acre (about one clump every 13 feet). Sitting atop your steed and armed with your lariat, you should be able to rope from one clump to the next easily. Such a defensive strategy perplexes your enemies' search efficiency. Conversely, overgrazed pastures play to the hand (er, paw) of the foraging skunk or raccoon. The eastern portion of the Rolling Plains has been hit hard especially hard in recent years by a combination of hyperbovinophilia, dry weather, and in some cases, desert termites.
Some are undoubtedly saying, "but grazing can be a good thing for quail habitat." No argument here; the dose makes the poison. I'd wager that on quail range in west Texas (25 inch precipitation) that grazing is an asset about 2 years out of 10, neutral another 2 years, and a liability for optimizing quail habitat the remaining 60% of the time. Grazing can be more beneficial in wetter climes. "Undergrazing" is the new operative among quail folks. Undergrazing is best accomplished by stocker animals on a put?and?take basis, or by stocking at a conservative rate (perhaps 50% of the NRCS recommended rate). Look for a new niche to develop for cattlepersons who are willing to "prescribe graze" to enhance quail management for absentee landowners (who likely purchased the property for hunting recreation not beef production). Trouble is, most of range management's philosophy since its inception in the 1940s has been a search for uniform grazing, i.e., avoid "spot grazing." But spot grazing tends to promote species diversity, at least up to a point.
For an interesting perspective, see the attached paper by Fuhlendorf and Engle that was published recently in BioScience.
The argument here isn't one of extremes, but a search for a happy medium that serves both quail and livestock needs better. Such threshholds need additional study to define/refine them.
Hunting season forecasts
I think next month's opening day is going to bring better than expected news to quail hunters, but let me put bounds on my prediction. The southwestern half of the Rolling Plains looks quite good; large coveys indicative of a good hatch. I'm less optimistic about the northeastern half for reasons noted above. Apparently the winter of 2000-01 dampened quail numbers across portions of the northern panhandle. Some of you folks from South Texas need to send word from that region. I understand that spring call counts were down considerably on the King Ranch. TPWD's quail forecast, and results of the 2001 roadside counts, are available at: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/hunt/regs/quail/index.htm. Counts were similar to last year's counts (i.e., considerably below the long-term mean) for most ecoregions. However blue quail in South Texas enjoyed the highest counts ever recorded during the 21 years the counts have been conducted. I've heard good reports of a blue quail resurgence over areas from roughly Snyder to Ft. Stockton. I was in Oklahoma City last weekend for a program there, and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife quail biologist (Mike Sams) reported that their 2001 August roadside counts were the lowest on record (counts were initiated in 1991). A long-time ranching friend of mine called this week lamenting the loss of his quail along the Elm Fork of the Red River. Says he's been in the pasture daily over the last 30 days and the quail are no mas, no mas! Anybody else noted a (significant) decline in that area?
One of Fred Guthery's quail maxims is that there are always more quail out there than what you think, and that the laws of chance can run amok in sighting such.
Big coveys!
When one encounters a big covey of quail (anything over 20 birds), you never know if it's indeed one covey or a collation of two coveys. I've seen a number of coveys with 20+ birds over the last 60 days. I once flushed a covey of bobwhites that I guessed had nearly 40 birds in it from a Hilton-sized plum thicket in the sandhills north of Hollis, OK back about 1977. My largest covey of blues was nearer 80 birds; they looked like blackbirds in the road when Coondog Cary and I drove up on them in the fall of 1970 south of Hollis. Don Aiken reported counting 43 birds in one covey, and he says that wasn't all of them, at their ranch in southwestern Fisher County. I don't doubt him. The Aikens have done a wonderful job with their habitat; I'd be hard-pressed to name a place that has a better quail population anywhere at this time.
Late hatches
Cooler, wetter weather during an unlikely time (mid-August) has been a welcome salve to drought-ravaged quail country over much of Texas. I've had just over 11 inches of rain from Aug. 18 to Sept. 18. While I haven't seen any late hatches in my sojourns, I got word from Fred Guthery that one of their radiomarked hens hatched 11 of 11 eggs on September 14. Guthery and his grad students are two years into a long-term study of quail on Boone Pickens' Mesa Vista Ranch near Pampa. He sent a highlight reel of some of their remote surveillance of quail nests with motion-sensing video cameras. Incredible footage of quail happenings.
I've examined quail killed on Nov. 22 at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma that were 7 weeks old, i.e., hatch date in early October. While such late hatches are interesting, they're not considered to make much of a contribution to the overall quail population. For my money, a quail hatch is made with a June hatch; anything later is just icing on the cake. Fidel Hernandez et al. with the South Texas Quail Research Project have documented quail nesting in Brooks County every month of the year except January.
Packsaddle WMA
One of Oklahoma's crown jewels is the Packsaddle WMA located in western Oklahoma. It's been the site of some of quaildom's most intensive radio telemetry efforts, and for darn sure those west of the Mississippi. Talk about some good nesting habitat and quail houses a softball's throw apart! See attached an article by Lindell Dillon on the Packsaddle's contributions to our knowledge about bobwhite management.
Quailweed
Those quail that did hatch, and I contend we had extraordinary hatch rates in some areas of the Rolling Plains this past summer, are well insulated via a good cover of broomweed. The broomweed got off to a slow start this spring, but August rains have yielded a Boone & Crockett stand. I expect it to pay quail dividends both this year and next. See Vol. 1, No. 1 for the "Pledge to Broomweed." Recite it often as you head afield amid big coveys of boisterous bobs and blues.
Drinkard paints rosy picture for Texas Brigades
Artist David Drinkard of Beaumont recently commissioned and donated two prints as fundraisers for the Bobwhite and Buckskin Brigade Wildlife Camps. Copies of the prints are available for a minimum donation of $20 by contacting Helen Holdsworth. For those of you in charge of a QU banquet or similar fundraiser, we'd appreciate it if you'd auction one off to benefit the Brigades. On top of that, Gerald and Glenda Stewart of Johnny Stewart Wildlife Calls donated the Bobwhite Brigade's portioin to have the prints made. Drinkard's and Stewart's contributions will be duly noted with a "Bobwhite Salute" at next summer's camps. A Bobwhite Salute is courtesy of "Mean Gene" Miller, TPWD biologist in Canyon, who learned the war grunt courtesy of the United States Marine Corps. It has since become standard issue at all Bobwhite and Buckskin Brigades to recognize service above and beyond the call.
Cadence of the Missive
While we're on the subject of Mean Gene Miller, I'll just dedicate this inaugural cadence tribute to him. Gene served faithfully as an instructor and D.I. for the first 6 battalions of the Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade. He leads by example, hence this tribute:
"Mean Gene the Bobwhite Marine, leads a life that's pure and clean.
Taught us all to give a hoot, and showed us the Bobwhite Salute."
Plant of the Missive? American Basketflower
American basketflower (Centaurea americana) is one of my favorites. Dismissed as a thistle by nearly all who gaze upon it, the purple-white shaving brush flower heralds steak and taters to quail. Crush one of the seedheads and 10 to 20 popcorn-kernel sized seeds (black in color) will pop out. Look for it in bar ditches in a neighborhood near you.
Two websites that are good sources for quail managers are the Plant Image Gallery at the Noble Foundation and the TAMU Center at Uvalde's web-based herbarium. Check them out.
Seed of the Missive - Quail pea
Quail pea, or known technically as trailing wild bean (Strophostyles spp.) grows on sandy soils in the eastern Panhandle. Such soils are typically some of the best quail habitat anywhere, and the plethora of legumes is one reason why. Quail pea looks like a small pinto bean (about 1/4 the size). Like most legume seeds, it's a favorite of quail.
Thanks to Steve Nelle and Garrett Anderson for their efforts with the quail seed photography. A collection of seeds will be available on the TeamQuail website when it is unveiled (hopefully in early November).
Quail Tracks on the Web
Here are some additional web sites that you might find interesting. If you have others bookmarked relative to quail management, please forward them to me for distribution to the Team.
Albany Area Quail Project (Albany, GA that is!)
Virginia's Bobwhite Quail Strategic Plan
Mississippi State Cooperative Extension's quail factsheet
Other gamebird topics by Mississippi State
North Carolina Cooperative Extension factsheet on quail nutrition
Oklahoma Cooperative Extension's habitat evaluation guide for quail
Nebraska Cooperative Extension's quail factsheet
My calendar
Here are some quail happenings where I'll be headed around the state:
October 2, Thinking Like a Quail, Bass Pro Shops, Grapevine
October 5, Brush Sculpting for Wildlife Field Day, Mills County
October 10, Blue Quail Appreciation Day, Andrews County
October 11-12, Texas Section, Society for Range Management annual
meeting, Odessa
(Several of my grad students will be making
presentations there)
October 16, Quail Appreciation Day, Fayette County
October 17-18, TeamQuail Strategic Planning Conference, San Angelo
October 19-26, Pheasant sampling in South Dakota with girlfriends Suzie
and Doc
October 27, Take daughter Krissa and Mandy Currie quail hunting during
youth only season
October 28, Bring Back the Bobwhite, Master Naturalist volunteer training
workshop, Burnet County
November 1, Deer Appreciation Day (oops!), Coleman County
(see next
month's cadence for a rebuttal!)
November 12, Bobwhite Brigade Steering Committee meeting, Abilene
November 27, Economic Impacts of Quail, Amarillo
Keep those cards and letters, hunting reports and quail questions, coming. May all your endeavors be flushed with success!
DR
