I used to golf. Trouble is, I love the game but hate crowds, especially on weekends when I am trying to recreate. Thus many years ago I gave up the gaudy pants, fancy shoes and expensive sticks, for…well…gaudy dry flies, fancy waders and other expensive sticks. Back a few years ago a development entity locally was building a new golf course right here in the heart of central Virginia. I passed the entrance to this new promised-land for iron wielding, golf cart racing, Bubba Watson “wannabes” daily on my way to work. It was all the talk of the local and slightly intoxicated “19th hole” crowd.
Shortly after the grand opening, I began getting phone calls, several every week about all the bobwhite quail that were being seen and heard around the new links. I had lived here long enough for people to actually believe there is such a thing as a quail biologist, and not only that, to have made enough of them aware of the plight of these special birds that they knew I’d appreciate any stories of quail success. They were all amazed that quail were attracted to golf courses. After all, I had told them repeatedly how quail needed rough areas, weeds, thickets, wildflowers and brambles and basically how quail hated “clean.” Many went on to describe how great the new course was but lamented, “Man, stay out of the rough though, I ripped a new pair of tweeds to shreds going after a lost ball last weekend.” Or, “This new course is like playing those old Scottish links, the rough is unreal.”
Generally a bit slow on the uptake, even I was quick to realize what was afoot around the new green ribbons of golfing glory. And sadly just as quick to realize how short-lived this new quail kingdom would be. I knew it would not be long until the regulars, who golfed here and not on the PGA tour for a reason, would grow tired of losing expensive golf balls in that rough. I don’t see how anyone without a sponsor can afford to play golf. And speaking of sponsors, I knew it also would not be long until those paying for signage around the links would demand that the unsightly weedy mess be cleaned up – as if God himself had no clue what kinds of plants should inhabit earth.
One day after work I took a drive down around the place. As you might imagine, when building a golf course from scratch, it takes quite a bit of heavy equipment. Dirt piles overgrown with ragweed abounded (some topped with clay covered golf balls). Brier thickets covered all the scarred areas, and broomstraw covered what had previously been fescue pasture. In short, quite inadvertently, and right here in the 21st century, a quail playground was created in a most unlikely place. I never got around to calculating by GIS exactly how many acres of quail cover had been accidentally established, but I suspect it was less than 10% of the total landscape encompassed by the fairways. You see, arrangement and distribution of cover has almost as much to do with quail habitat as does total acreage.
Within a year or two those calls stopped coming in. Upon driving by now, all that remains of that beautiful native cover are a few clumps of broomstraw poking up through the fescue, about as effective as a few hairs sticking up on a bald man’s scalp (Bald is Bold, Baby – I’m bald, I can joke about it). Occasionally I get a call that goes like this, “Man, there were quail out here a couple years ago like crazy, I almost hit one with a 5-wood out on number 6 (I did not know how to yell Foooouuouuuuurrrrr! In quail-ease), I don’t know what happened to them.” And so it goes – ah yes, maybe it’s predators, or some disease, or a parasite?
Take home lessons – quail can and do re-populate an area quickly when there is enough cover in the right distribution as long as there is seed stock (a few other quail) within a few miles. It is not overly difficult to create quail cover, but keeping it around is harder. There are challenges such as “How do we create good quail cover without increasing soil erosion, or decreasing water quality?” We can answer those kinds of questions, but the one I have the hardest time with is “How do we get enough people to care about quail and quail cover to make a difference?” When we live in a country where barely 40% of eligible voters make an effort to be involved, there are bigger issues at play.
Next month’s post: “The butterfly that saved the bee that saved the bobwhite.”
March 30, 2015
