Dale Rollins: January 2005 Archives
In the court of public opinion, bobwhites in eastern portions of the Rolling Plains have succumbed to a disease epizootic. I hear reports of folks finding dead quail out in the field, and the diagnosis fromlocal coffee shops is usually "cocciliosis" (sic).
I've had 6 birds submitted to me within the past month from Throckmorton and Shackelford counties. Results are inconclusive. One died from trauma (apparently flew into a building), and 3 had parasites (roundworms in the breast and in the small intestine), but these are not newsworthy, and are not thought to be particular pathogenic to bobwhites.
Virology on one specimen is pending.
I submitted a specimen to the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab last week that was shot in Shackelford County. It seemed to be about 70% of the weight of an adult bobwhite. And adult bobwhite should weight between 160 and 175 grams.
A rancher and quail hunter from Callahan County called last night to say his dog had brought a live quail up to their house; there had been no hunting for the past several weeks and the bird seemed to be of low weight. That specimen is enroute to the TVMDL today for necropsy.
Keep your eyes posted. If you find something, let me know and I'll give you instructions for having the speciment submitted for necropsy.
Dr. Rollins,
I have been to the Team Quail web site and I really would like to know if you could recommend a quail publication to give as a gift. You mentioned in one of your newsletters about an upcoming book "Texas Quails: Ecology and Management." I can't locate this and I was wondering if you could recommend a book for a Texas Quail hunter.
Thanks,
MB
Austin, Texas
++++++++++
Dear MB,
Reading is fundamental . . . even for quail hunters. Below are a list of books that I have on my shelf. Many are out of print, but you can sometimes locate one at Amazon.com. For starters I'd recommend Wyman Meinzer and Ray Sasser's coffee table book on Texas Quail. And then "On Bobwhites" by Fred Guthery. Both can be found at Amazon.com. The forthcoming book Texas Quails: Ecology and Management is due out later this summer from Texas A&M University Press.
Some of the classics include Stoddard's (1931) "The Bobwhite Quail" and Val Lehmann's "Bobwhites in the Rio Grande Plains of Texas." Citations follow.
Remember the "Quincey, ME" television series starring Jack Klugman as a medical examiner? Give him an hour and he could decipher any forensic puzzle. Yesterday, while quail hunting near Paint Rock (Concho Co.) one of my colleagues called me over to look at evidence of a recent quail kill. The evidence consisted of a pile of feathers, plus the quail's uneaten gizzard.
So, "whodunnit?"
The predator was definitely a feline, either a bobcat or wild housecat. Small felines don't consume the gizzard of a quail, for whatever reason (I don't like them either!).
For more information on becoming a "Quincey", see a new publication called "Role of Predator Control in Wildlife Management" available for $5 from tcebookstore.org/pubinfo.cfm?pubid=1871
The Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society will be holding its annual meeting Feb. 24-26, 2005 at the Amarillo Civic Center. There will be about 10 papers presented there on quail management, plus 40+ more talks on various other issues in wildlife management in Texas. Non-members can attend technical sessions for $25. See http://tctws.org (click on the Jan '05 newsletter) for more information and registration form.
"I've never seen the average covey size as large as it is this year" exclaimed the manager of a historically good quail ranch near Paducah . . . it's mind-boggling."
"Had a great hunt in Throckmorton County this past Saturday, probably one of the top 5 hunts of my life" says BR from Dallas. BR did flush one weak bird that the dogs caught; that specimen is enroute to the Diagnostic Lab at TAMU today.
I accompanied a couple of hunters from Pennsylvania on a hunt in Fisher County last week; great weather for the dogs, a bit chilly for the hunters! We enjoyed great quail hunts there in some very quaily cover situations.
BA from Frio County called me with the best reports I've heard . . . he wrote of a 45-covey day being his worst outing! Now, I don't think he works for the chamber of commerce. Have heard others from Willacy and Zavala counties with similarly glowing reports. One S. Tx. biologist told me back in October they had to fly deer counts at higher altitudes to keep from making quail salads with the helicopter's rotor blades.
First liar just doesn't stand a chance, does he?
Still hearing some sobering reports from some areas however; DP reports 9 coveys in about 5 hours of hunting in northern Shackelford County, but the covey sizes were 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, about 10, and about 15.
DR
There have been several comments to the "what's for dinner" topic. LD said he found ice pellets in a bird in OK during this week's ice storm there. Reminded me of interesting behavior in quail that I've seen several times over the past 30 years. If it ever starts sleeting, get in your truck and begin driving the roads; something about a sleet (frozen pptt) that seems to put quail in an incredible feeding frenzy. It would be easy to rationalize and conclude they are stuffing their crops to lay by and store. (Note: I've been accused by some of my peers for giving quail way too much credit for their intelligence. They'd tell you that quail don't reason about crossing a fence or creek if you flush them just to complicate your pursuit . . I guess those [numerous] incidents were just chance events.)
Hmmm, maybe those quail eating ice pellets were snacking in preparation for OU's cold showing in the Orange Bowl that evening. You said they were near Norman, didn't you LD?
Probably the strangest things I've ever seen in a quail's crop were a half-dozen meadowlark droppings (they look like miniature cinnamon rolls (but black and white); not sure if they taste similarly) from a quail in Harmon Co., OK circa 1975. That's the only time I've seen coprophagy (poop eating) by a quail (it's common in rabbits however).
I did my MS work at Okla. State from 1978-80 working on bobwhite and scaled quail, including a study of their diets. Picked up some crops in Nov. 1979 from Quanah Range on Ft. Sill that had an item that bumfuzzled me for a good while . . . looked like a crop full of broken toothpicks. Turns out they were the fruits of green ash trees. Saw same just recently in quail taken in Clay Co., TX.
On a tour in Wheeler County back in 1990 someone asked me if quail ate seeds of grassbur (sandbur). Had me stumped; I'd never seen the kernel of the grassbur in a quail's crop. Later that year I visited A. S. Jackson (he was 93 at the time) and asked him same. He recalled seeing quail with grassbur kernels in some quail crops back in the 1940s, but during March and April, not during the fall. According to Jackson, woodrats harvest the sandburs, husk the kernel out, and then when they cleaned their middens out in the spring, the kernels became available for consumption by bobwhites. For what it's worth.
This summer will mark the 13th year of the Bobwhite Brigade Wildlife Leadership Camp. The original camp (held at Krooked River Lodge north of Abilene) has been cloned to include 5 other camps (South Tx Bobwhite, East Tx Feathered Forces, 2 Buckskin Brigades, and the newest Bass Brigade). Applications are now available for youths interested in attending this summer's camps. See www.texasbrigades.org for application forms and more details.
There's plenty of opportunities for adults as well. If you're interested in the best 5-day shortcourse on quail management available anywhere, sign up as a "Covey Leader." And it doesn't cost you a penny (if you don't count lost sleep!). You'll eat like a king and hunt with good dogs. Applications available at the website.
Tuition for cadets is $300; we're always seeking sponsors for cadets, so if time precludes your personal involvement, but you want to help out, consider making a tax-deductible donation to sponsor a cadet from your area.
But we especially need your assistance in identifying and recruiting top-notch cadets (youths 13-17 years old). The camps typically have 10 girls and 20 guys, but I hope to have 15 of each at this year's Rolling Plains Bobwhite Brigade. If you have a potential cadet that might be shrugging their shoulders and thinking "why would I attend a 5-day camp where all they study about is a dumb little bird", let me know and I'll have some of our past cadets contact them. It's a great learning opportunity.
If some of you are interested in the Covey Leader role, let me know and I'll have some of our past Covey Leaders chat with you (or perhaps they'll post a reply here).
As I clean quail, I always dissect out the crop contents to see what the birds have dined on for their last meal, if anything. Yesterday (Jan. 2), I cleaned 18 birds taken from my lease in Coke County. Greens were the order of the day, followed by seeds of broomweed. One quail had a dozen or so mesquite beans in it.
During a recent trip to Hollis, OK over the holidays, most of the birds there had consumed "quail pea" (trailing wild bean). Some crops I looked at from quail in Clay County included seeds of chittam, hackberry, and a lot of seeds of green ash (these resemble broken toothpicks).
Check out the website below for images of key seeds found in quail crops. I'm always interested in expanding this photo library, so as you come across seeds that aren't represented, send me some samples and I'll get them photographed and posted. Mandy Currie, a student worker for me, uses a magnifier lamp and a digital camera as a quick way to getting some useful seed photographs.
