ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701070019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
Mike Fies has thousands of pictures of culprits caught in the act. Culprits, that is, if you are a quail or a quail hunter, or maybe just someone who longs to hear the distinctly country sound of a crisp ``bob white'' on a warm spring morning.
The who's who of bad guys in the world of quail includes skunks, opossums, raccoons, dogs, gray foxes, black snakes and, in one case, a groundhog, according to documentation by Fies.
These are among the creatures caught destroying quail nests, said Fies, a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist who recently completed three years of field work on quail nesting.
``Incubating a nest is hazardous duty,'' he said.
Fies and his assistants located and monitored 102 quail nests. Only 34 - barely 33 percent - produced one or more chicks. That's way too few to expand the population, Fies said.
In most cases, predators were the problem. They were responsible for 95.5 percent of the failed nest attempts.
``In most instances [85 percent of failures], nest predators ate all or most of the eggs in a clutch,'' said Fies. ``In other cases, the nest failed because the incubating bird was killed by a predator while it was off the nest feeding.''
Only three nests (4.5 percent) were destroyed by hay-mowing operations, often thought to be a major problem for nesting birds.
When eggs began to disappear from the nests Fies was checking, he set up a remote camera at many sites. The nests were refilled with pen-raised quail eggs and when those eggs were disturbed the camera was triggered. Skunks and opossums showed up in most of the pictures.
As for the groundhog caught eating eggs, ``I'm sure that this was an unusual circumstance, but interesting nevertheless,'' Fies said.
Once the eggs hatched successfully, the danger for the quail was far from over, Fies discovered when he equipped adult birds with tiny radio transmitters so they could be followed.
``One of the most alarming results of our study was that 37.9 percent of radioed birds that hatched a brood were dead within 10 days after hatching,'' he said.
When the adult bird died, most likely the young birds also perished, although there was no way to document that because the brood could not be monitored once the adult bird was destroyed, Fies said.
``Some of the chicks in these broods may have survived, but most probably died,'' he said.
The size of the hatched broods ranged from five to 19 chicks and averaged 11.8, he said.
The study by Fies is expected to play a significant role in Virginia's Bobwhite Quail Management Plan, adopted in April by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Quail numbers have declined alarmingly in Virginia, from 3 million in 1970 to 1.2 million today. It has been much the same in other quail states, where a 62 percent decline in the population has been noted since 1966.
The department has pulled together five wildlife biologists with almost 100 total years of small-game management experience to implement the plan, said Steve Capel, one of the researchers. The goal, he said, is ``to stop the decline in Virginia of bobwhite quail numbers and increase populations for the recreational enjoyment of all Virginia citizens.''
Among the first efforts is to sell citizens on the idea that the decline can be reversed, something Capel has been doing with fervor at meetings and seminars across the state, including one in Vinton sponsored by the 33-member Virginia Mountain Chapter of Quail Unlimited.
Dr. Bill Clarkston, chairman of the year-old chapter, said he was happy to see the efforts on behalf of quail, but warned members not to expect miracles.
``To get quail back the way we want to have them, we have a long road ahead,'' he said.
The chapter has been working with landowners, providing them seeds for planting wildlife cover and instructions on how to assist quail on their property. ``Missionary work,'' is what Clarkston calls it.
``Even if you had a cooperative landowners who did everything right, it is my guess it would take two to four years to notice any benefits,'' he said.
Dealing with the high mortality of adult birds that are caring for broods is a major concern, Capel said.
``First of all, the broods have to be taken someplace where they can catch insects,'' he said. If the only habitat available is a freshly mowed field, there is little protection for the adults from predators.
Many of the avian predators are protected by federal law, so there is nothing in the management plan that declares war on animals that feast on quail. The idea is to provide more protective habitat.
One of the best ways to accomplish that, Capel said, ``is the old disk behind a tractor. That will give you a quick response, just from annual weeds, which provide food and cover. Brood habitat is somewhere there are a million insects.''
Property owners are being encouraged to leave some land idle in natural vegetation, to establish borders of food and cover along the border of cropland and to convert hay fields and meadows from cool-season grasses, such as fescue, to native warm-season grasses.
State wildlife biologists are conducting workshops for landowners and sportsmen across the state. Topics include prescribed burning and other techniques to enhance quail habitat. Demonstration areas that showcase ideal habitats are being developed. One is under consideration for Explore Park.
``The plan is to make lay people more knowledgeable,'' Capel said. ``While we talk about it as a quail plan, recognize that a lot of other species are going to benefit - from mockingbirds to monarch butterflies.''
A key question: How can you expect landowners to spend out-of-pocket money to benefit quail?
Capel believes cost-sharing is one way.
Late in 1996, the state Division of Soil and Water Conservation and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries began to promote a cost-sharing program that will offer financial incentives to landowners who plant field borders, leave idle land for wildlife and convert fields from fescue to native warm-season grass. In some targeted counties, 75 percent of the practices will be paid for, Capel said. In others, the payback will be 25 percent. Landowners need to contact their local soil and water conservation district by Jan. 31 for information.
The new federal farm bill also is offering cost-sharing. State wildlife biologists in the past have been critical of federal farm programs, which they say seldom have considered wildlife.
LENGTH: Long : 120 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NELL BOLEN. These adult birds photographed in Rockbridgeby CNBCounty are holding to the kind of cover wildlife biologists would
like to see developed throughout Virginia. color.