|
| |
 Bobwhites roost in a circle for protection. If attacked by a predator, the quail can scatter in different directions. Nothing can compare with the beauty of a covey of bobwhite quail flushing on a morning when the air has chilled enough to see both your own and the birds' breath. I feel a thrill when I hear the beating wings as they rise to make an escape. Contentment settles over me knowing all is well in the world, if just for that moment. I am concerned that these special moments will happen less frequently due to an ongoing decline in quail numbers. When I asked my grandfather and some of his friends what the quail population was when they were young, they replied, "There used to be birds all over the place," and, "Used to be we didn't really need dogs." Of course, they were thinking of the bobwhite quail as a bird hunter would. But there are many more aspects to this bird than that of a challenging quarry. The bobwhite quail, Colinus virginianus, is in the same family as other ground-dwelling fowl such as the pheasant and the grouse. A typical bobwhite quail is approximately six inches tall and weighs only about six ounces. Even though Texas appears to be the last stronghold for quail, their numbers have been declining annually by 4.7 percent across their Texas range. Some theorize that if this trend is not checked, the bobwhite quail will pass into extinction by the year 2005. This would be a terrible blow not only to hunters and wildlife enthusiasts, but also to businesses in rural communities that provide services to those who come to enjoy this small game bird. |
I first became interested in quail when I attended the Bobwhite Brigade, a five-day wildlife leadership camp. My assigned "silver bullet" (an inspirational saying) was this quote from Aldo Leopold: "The outstanding scientific discovery of the 20th century is not the television or the radio, but the complexity of the land organism." Thus began my development of a land ethic.  At the Bobwhite Brigade training, I got a quail's eye view of the world I found that trailing dogs with my grandfather, who has a passion for hunting, provided memorable opportunities to observe the bobwhite quail. Over the past year I have attended several "quail appreciation days" at different locations around the state. I have had the opportunity to visit many ranches, including the famous King Ranch, where I was introduced to many land management and conservation principles. Because of these experiences, I became intrigued with following these principles on our 10,000-acre family ranch. I know that the future of the bobwhite quail rests in the hands of landowners and people like my family and me. The Texas Quail Index (TQI) is a five-year study that measures certain factors that are known to affect quail populations. It monitors the quail population to assess what changes occur and how they influence the species' population dynamics. In order to do this on a large scale, the coordinator, Dr. Dale Rollins, has enlisted the help of cooperators in 48 counties in Texas. Dr. Rollins will take all the data collected by the cooperators and create one massive database. He will then be one of the primary analysts looking for patterns between the measured factors and local quail population size. |
        
|
|
