Diversified
“Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers.” – A. Leopold (1949)
Radio-tracking quail can be discouraging at times, especially when one realizes how quickly they can “melt” because of mortality. We don’t post every mortality on our Facebook page, but when one is “unusual” it becomes noteworthy.
Such was the case last week when technician Patrick Carmody stumbled upon an interesting obituary.
While tracking a different quail, he virtually stepped on what was left of the remains of male bobwhite from a predation incident. This was not the bird Patrick was seeking, in fact this bird had never been radio-collared. As Patrick inspected the kill site (likely a raptor kill based on physical evidence at the scene), he noticed one leg amidst the feathers, and that leg was adorned with a leg band, thus allowing Patrick to investigate more on the bird’s life.
Poor ol’ 13875 (the bird’s leg band number); He was banded as a juvenile in the fall of 2015, making it right at 5 years old at the time of his death.
This is one of the oldest birds that has been noted on the Ranch (we’ve had at least three birds I can recall that were at least five years old) and although its fate was pretty typical (e.g., died from predation), it’s a good example of how healthy habitats provide animals the opportunities to have longer (and hopefully more productive) lives.
Does anyone know of any documented evidence of longer-lived quails?
As this bird was never radio-collared, we only have three records of him in our database.
He apparently didn’t move very far during his tenure at RPQRR. The distance between the green and red waypoints is 597 yards.
It is perhaps significant that this portion of the ranch offers some of our most dense brush cover.
Perhaps the old patriarch knew what he was doing when he selected this spot on the map. Source: Dale Rollins, RPQRR, www.quailresearch.org
Rolling Plains Quail
Research Ranch Update
As of April 29, we are tracking 36 resident hens (24 bobwhites, 12 scaled quail). We have several birds that we believe are in the process of building nests but have yet to visually confirm the presence of a nest.
We are hopeful to do so very soon and look forward to a productive nesting season.
Our translocated scaled quail have enjoyed good survival, and site fidelity —four birds have moved off the ranch onto adjacent property about 300 yards east of our perimeter fence.
Of the 15 scaled quail (fitted with radio transmitters) released at RPQRR in March, we have only sustained one mortality to date.
By Daniel King RPQRR