Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507240025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The sounds are pure and distinctly country, and they might cause you to say something stupid, like, ``Quail appear to be on the rebound.''
Yet, if this year goes like the past, by fall it will be tough to find a single bird.
Quail across most of their southern range have been pulling a disappearing act, and that has occurred at a time when modern wildlife management has seen species such as deer and turkey boom to record highs.
Quail hold importance far beyond being targets for hunters, but you can get a feel for the depths this bird has fallen when you measure hunting success. Last year, quail hunters had their poorest season on record, according to a Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries survey.
In the neighborhood where I grew up, it was common to see a kennel behind houses where a couple of lanky pointers awaited the next hunt. Birds now are so scarce it can be tough to find enough to train a dog. Youngsters - both pointing dogs and people - coming into the sport are rare.
During the last decade, the plight of this bird has stimulated a new cry across the South: ``It's time to do something to help the quail.'' The result has been the initiation of research projects and the maturing of Quail Unlimited, a conservation organization designed to help quail much like Ducks Unlimited has benefited waterfowl.
The one thing that has been discovered: There are no easy answers on behalf of this bird.
Most often, changes in land patterns are credited for the demise of quail. You can't cover a farm field with asphalt and expect to savor the booming flush of a covey of birds. Nor can you saw down grandpaw's wood lot and replace his rail fences with a strand of electric wire and expect to hear quail calling.
``If you drive from Richmond to Roanoke and keep your eyes pealed for quail habitat along the way, there is not a lot out there,'' said Bob Duncan, the state game division chief.
Pesticides and predators also are of concern. Pete Bromley, who was an extension wildlife biologist at Virginia Tech for many years and now is a professor of crop science at North Carolina State, is nearing the end of a five-year study on the relationship between pesticides, modern farming and the quail population decline.
In Virginia, Mike Fies is into the second year of research on quail nesting habitat, nesting success and brood survival. So far this year, Fies has captured 150 quail and equipped 135 with radio transmitters. He has discovered that the mortality rate is staggering. By late June, 22 of the quail had been killed by avian predators (hawks and owls), 12 by mammalian predators (fox, bobcat and weasel) and nine by unknown predators.
One hen was killed by an avian predator just two days after hatching a brood. One nest was destroyed while the chicks were hatching.
``The hen had spent three days building the nest, 14 days laying and 23 days incubating, only to have the whole effort negated on the very last day,'' Fies said.
It is tough out there.
Is there any hope for quail?
Duncan is optimistic. Research being conducted in Virginia and other states is designed to give landowners facts on how they can improve quail numbers.
Next comes the question, will the landowners have the money, time and desire to carry out the management recommendations? Quail are a species of private property.
``My optimism is tempered with the knowledge that what is missing out there for a lot of people is some kind of incentive to have the landowners do something,'' Duncan said. ``Aldo Leopold said it many years ago: Only the farmer can manage wildlife. The rest of us can preach a little gospel and do a little extension work, but only the landowner can do wildlife management.''
by CNB