Grasses and Quail
"Grass is the forgiveness of nature, her constant benediction." - J. J. Ingalls
Over the next week or so, many Texas ranchers are going to ask "where did all that beautiful green forage disappear to?" The verdant, luxuriant growth of filaree, little barley, rescuegrass, and other winter annuals, that looked so good two months ago, is now revealing its cost. And as the winter weeds melt, many will pine George Jones' lyrics "who's going to fill their shoes?"
As it goes for cattle forage, so it is also for suitable grasses for quail nests. If a quail has it's "druthers", it would "druther" nest in a bunchgrass about the diameter of a basketball and about thigh high. But it prefers to nest in residual growth from last year. Therein spells trouble as most of last year's ranges went into a deficit spending mode last summer, thanks to the drought, desert termites, and too many stock for the depleted conditions.
Here's my suggestions for the top quail grasses in Texas. First from the nesting perspective, and then from the seed-bearing perspective. The two lists are pretty much mutually exclusive.
Nesting habitat
Little bluestem. The quintessential nesting site for bobwhites in the southern plains is little bluestem. I also include it's lookalikes broomsedge and seacoast bluestem here. In areas where these grasses are abundant, it's not unusual for more than 75 percent of the nests to be located in them. A recent study at the Packsaddle Wildlife Management Area in western Oklahoma documented 98% of the bobwhite nests in little bluestem. The long decurved leaves provide a nice substrate for a hen to "burrow" into and lay a clutch of 14 or so eggs. For optimum nesting habitat, strive for at least 300 basketball-sized clumps per acre, or about one every 12 feet across the landscape.
Tobosa. West of the 100th meridian, one is more likely to encounter tobosa than little bluestem, except for sandy sites. Tobosa is especially common, even dense, on clay flats across the western third of the state. It rarely reaches knee height, but it appears to be the west Texas answer to little bluestem as far as quail are concerned. During the summer of 1999, 41 of 44 blue quail nests in Pecos County were situated in tobosa. Tobosa has something else in common with little bluestem: it's quite unpalatable to livestock except for the new growth after spring green-up or following a burn.
Other bunchgrasses. If you picture the growth form of little bluestem, then other grasses with the same basic blueprint will likely function as nesting habitat, provided they occur across the landscape. A quail nest has much to gain if it's abode blends well into the surrounding scenery. If it sticks out like sore thumb, the quail's enemies will have easy pickin's. Perennial threeawns, meadow dropseeds, alkali sacaton, and bush muhly are species that are sometimes used for nesting. We've also found nests located in the grasslike sacahuista.
Introduced grasses: I confess mostly ignorance here. Coastal bermudagrass grows similarly to tobosa, but I'm not aware of any studies indicating quail nesting in the oft-cursed (by the wildlife community at least) sodforming grass. We have documented a few nests in Tom Green County in "old world" bluestems, and their growth form would appear to suffice, but whether quail see it that way or not has yet to be documented. Ditto for weeping lovegrass. As common as the latter two are on Conservation Reserve Program acreages in west Texas, perhaps they provide more nesting cover than what I suspect; if nothing else, by default.
Seed value
A good grass plant for quail food will be one that produces a fairly large, hard seed. I'm ignoring the various crop "grasses", e.g., milo, wheat, and corn, even though these grains are great quail foods. Instead I'll address the native, or at least naturalized, species of grass.
Johnsongrass. I wish I could crown a native species as the queen of the quail forages, but Johnsongrass simply has too many virtues for the hungry quail. It produces a fairly large seed, and it produces them every year to my knowledge. Have you ever seen it so dry that the Johnsongrass failed to produce a seed crop? I haven't. Because of its palatability to cattle, it's usually restricted to the roadside.
Bristlegrasses. The genus Setaria includes the foxtails and bristlegrasses. The annuals are prolific seed producers that are often included in quail food plots. But it's the perennial, Plains bristlegrass, that is probably most quail-friendly over most of west Texas. Search for your Plains bristlegrass within the dripline of mesquite and other established brush.
Panicum grasses. The Panicum genus includes such desirable forages as switchgrass and kleingrass. The seeds are "slick" and shiny, but often quite small. All things equal, a quail prefers a larger seed simply because it takes less effort to meet its energy demand. Some of the weedy annuals (e.g., sourgrass, browntop millet, or Texas panicum) are often included in food plots, or stimulated by winter disking.
Paspalum grasses. The paspalums (Paspalum spp.) are most common on sandy sites in west Texas, hence the common sand paspalum. The seeds will be almost the size of milo and typically flattened on one side. Tall and thinseed paspalum are other locally common species.
Bluestems. While they may have other virtues for bobwhites (e.g., nesting cover) they're worthless for quail food. The chaffy seeds just aren't attractive to birds.
Grama grasses. Praise them for cow fodder, but they're no bueno for quail food.
Cadenhead's Corollary reminds us that "thou shalt not judge the value of a plant to quail on it's food basis alone." Certainly some of the above may provide screening, escape, thermal, or roosting cover, or indirectly affect quail foods if it attracts insects.
I always rate various plants with some trepidation, as value tends to be a relative term, depending on where you, and the quail, are located. If you've observed counterinstances to the above observations, I'd like to hear about them. Share them with me at d-rollins@tamu.edu.
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