The feeder stations are another means to aid in the quail's transition to the wild. The feeders will be maintained until the following springs nesting period of May and June. At that time the surviving brooder quail raising their own chicks will have fully transitioned to wild feed in all of its forms. The first of which we see immediately on the juvenile quail release from the brooder as they set about grazing on green matter.
Each feeding station is placed in a covered area allowing protected ingress/regress from the feeder to the surrounding cover. The supplemental feeding equipment used in this effort was that supplied at our cost (we take no sponsorship for our efforts) by Quality Wildlife Covey base Camp. While the picture we used is one shoeing both waterer and feeder it was used as it was the picture we had on file. We have since stopped using the waterer as unnecessary for our part of the country and are doubling up the feeders at each station using a second feeder to replace the waterer. We do not plan any further purchases of the Covey Base camp system until we try the feeder offered by Quail Restoration as it is larger and allows for multiple feeds from the same container. Drawing from our experience and that of research such as the Effects Of Supplemental Feeding on Northern Bobwhite Populations In South Texas, by Ted B Doerr and Nova J Silvy, Texas A&M University, College Station Texas, we recognize that good quail nutrition is reliant on multiple food sources year round to enhance the likelihood of year round survival and chick reproduction strength. While it is easy to provide corn, wheat and milo to our local quail populations through supplemental feeding those same food sources even collectively do not provide the balanced nutritional requirements of protein, minerals and chemicals required by quail to ensure survival of coveys over the years. Phosphorus in the study noted above is one example of a quail requirement we do not have the means to measure or supply to our habitat development efforts just yet What these efforts tell us is that many hunters want that one or easy fix to quail population development and that one easy fix is a fallacy. A larger encompassing effort is required to make a difference and that larger effort certainly costs a lot more money, time and effort than simply planting native grass or posting feeders.
At each feeding station rat bait is placed in dog proof containers to control mice and rats from over populating the immediate area and drawing predators.
All this effort to give the 5 week old quail a chance to breed next spring. Another picture of the good tail and body feathers from outdoor brooded quail. This picture was taken just before the release. Give these birds another 4 - 5 weeks in the wild and they will be as ready for dog training as any wild quail. Perhaps the point to be taken away from this one piece of the conservation effort John puts into wildlife is that such a concern does translate into how we screen our hunters at time of application and monitor them during the season.
One such example are the tires on the no-till drill. As the drill goes into areas not actively farmed such as the boarders areas between crop fields and creek bottoms and within our region of the country where the Osage Orange and Honey Locust grow tire puncturing thorns the drill's tires are filled with a liquid Kevlar material that seals punctures' up to a 1/4. In this case for $30 per drill tire and $45 and $75 for the small and large tractor tires. Not to use this Kevlar sealant will result in flat tires in the field on nearly any field where an attempt is made to plant. When it comes to habitat development for quail we are working toward a select few components. The first is year round food sources, preferred natural and supplements as insurance with feeders. The next is nesting and brood cover as without reproduction we will not have sustainability. The next is roost cover that provides protection from ground and aerial predation as well as weather protection. The final element is having all of the three previous parts within close proximity and repeated over a wider area as much as possible. The food part in addition to the supplemental feeding illustrated above also includes lespedeza for perennial seeds planted as boarders between crop fields and pastures parallel to roost cover. This provides winter over food in close energy saving proximity tot he roost. For spring brooding and summer time survival we plant broad leaf insect attracting weeds along side the nesting cover ensuring the primary protein rich food source for chick during brood months. A lot of times these areas are simply chemical burn down areas allowed to grow back with volunteer weeds with occasional no-till of forbs. This method greatly surprises unwanted disturbance weeds and allows for much ground litter and widely spaced weeds for easy chick navigation. For roost cover we draw primarily upon the "Winter Macro and Micro habitat Use Of Winter Roost Sites In Central Missouri" (Camberlain, Drobney and Dailey) study that provides quail prefer old fields as primary roost locations. Old fields were described as those with a variance of growth to include much native warm season grasses, much ground level litter (gives value to no-till vice clean tillage and avoidance of burning) in proximity to winter food sources (supplemental and planted lespedeza in our case). The ground litter was cited as a means to provide warmth during the night by raising the covey above the dirt. This appears quite similar to coyote beds and deer beds where they prefer matting down tall grass to that of leaf litter in woods. The roosts cover was typically higher than surrounding areas and rarely included woody cover. It appears from this study and others that woody edge cover being the primary quail habitat to be a secondary affect of the primary being it is typically along the edge of fields that woody cover prevents efficient agriculture and allows the NWSG and other lower than woody cover to thrive. The true quail habitat is then the brush and weed areas that in the case of the agriculture intensive central mid-west exists primarily parallel to the woody creek bottoms and fence lines. This then leads to the idea that stripes of variance in food, nest/brood and roost cover separate from wood edge to be viable quail habitat.
At this point we draw a cautionary statement about reading some quail behavior, habitat and other studies as we have read some that are well outside of our first hand experience such as the "Cyclicity In Northern Bobwhites: A Time-Analytic Review Of The Evidence" (Thorgmartin, Roseberry, Woolf). This research attempted to prove or disprove that Bobwhite Quail are similar or not to Ruff Grouse at having population density cycles based on a time rhythm. Any serious quail hunter that reads this research will quickly recognize the flaws in its logic and place it off to the side. The point to this discussion is that we take the available good ideas from others that correlate to our in the field behind our own bird dog experience and use what is useful and wonder about that which is not. That experience is also limited to the Kansas, Missouri, Iowa region and is not applicable to other areas such as the arid Texas or heavily wooded Alabama regions. For nesting cover we draw from Jef Hodges, QU and locally recognized quail habitat expert that has planted hundreds (very possibly thousand or more by now) of acres over more years of experience than any other that we have yet met. His mixture is (all in pounds per acre) 2 Little Bluestem, 1 Big Bluestem, 1 Indian Grass, 1 bulk mixed forbs seed. The system we use is to clear cut a field of brush. Chemical spray down of all vegetation. Plant in parallel rows of repeated small patches food, nesting/brood and roost cover. Repeat as much as space allows for which always seems less than desired and always good enough. Planting is by no-till only and we do not fire burn anything.
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Each quail feeding station has a milo hopper and nipple waterer.
Peripheral costs are always present and in the case of upland bird habitat it includes such costs as specialized equipment.
