Bobwhite Quail
The Traveling Wingshooter: 2014 Bobwhite Quail
by Dave Smith
Bobwhites are locked in a six-decade tailspin, but they finally caught a break from the weather this year, both in the hallowed bobwhite country of the South and in the western portion of the range, which has had the best populations in recent times. This fall should be a nice return for public and private landowners who are making investments in quail habitat management.
The big news is from the Rolling Plains of Texas, one of the major strongholds for this treasured species. The rains finally returned to the drought-stricken region in 2013 and this year conditions have been superb.
“This spring and summer has been the most incredible quail-making weather one could imagine,” said Dale Rollins, Director of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch in Roby, Texas, and long-time quail authority. “We’ve had good moisture and wonderful nesting conditions with very few days over 100 degrees. It’s the best year since 2007.”
The question is whether the favorable conditions will turn out quail as expected. According to Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, the Rolling Plains hit rock bottom in 2013 with only 2.91 quail per 20-mile roadside survey, a tiny fraction of the long-term average of 20.01 quail per survey.
Habitat conditions in Oklahoma and Kansas, as noted above for pheasants, are much better this year; thus hunters should expect substantial increases in quail numbers this fall from the dismal populations of the last two years. Prendergast expects the South-central Prairies, traditionally one of the state’s best landscapes for bobwhites, to be much better this year. Likewise, Cox was optimistic: “Current research being conducted in western Oklahoma and the Panhandle suggests that we have had more nests by late June than all of last year.”
In Missouri, where hunters annually harvest up to 100,000 bobwhites, quail prospects are good. “This looks like a promising year,” said Scott Sudkamp, Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). “We didn’t have a real severe winter. It was cool and wet early, but by the nesting season the weather was just about right for quail.” Sudkamp stressed the key to quail conservation in Missouri is a block of high-quality quail habitat with a Wildlife Management Area or a habitat cooperative formed by a group of landowners serving as an anchor. Sudkamp suggests trying MDC Quail Emphasis Areas such as White River Trace, Poosey, Stockton Lake, or Thomas Hill.
In Georgia, the forecast is good due to carryover from a superb quail year in 2013 and then cooperative weather this breeding season, according to Reggie Thackston, Georgia Wildlife Resources Division (WRD). The Di-Lane Wildlife Management Area provided excellent public quail hunting last fall. Thackston notes that the recently formed Florida-Georgia Quail Coalition (Georgia WRD, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Pheasants Forever, and Tall Timbers Research Station) seeks to develop more public land complexes like Di-Lane to implement the quail habitat plans in Florida and Georgia.
North Carolina‘s weather was ideal for quail production this spring and summer, according to Mark Jones, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. “It’s shaping up to be a good year for those that have good habitat,” he said. He stressed that there’s no mystery in how to produce quail, but that the future for bobwhites on the Coastal Plain is landowners deciding to implement the combination of burning and thinning needed to remove canopy cover and get sunlight to the ground.
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