We need your help.
Our team hopes you will join us on the first annual Virginia “Great October Quail Covey Count.” You can solicit your neighbors’ help, too. As the saying goes, “Tell me and I forget, involve me and I learn.” By mid-October, most quail coveys have formed after going through what biologists call the “fall shuffle.” Late summer and early fall is a period of great flux among quail. They move about a great deal, groups form, then break up, and re-form with new members, and mixing and matching is the name of the genetic diversity game. But by the cool days of mid-October, they start to settle into their winter units we all know and love – coveys. And it is during this time that quite a bit of fall “covey calling” occurs…as coveys settle into a range and let other coveys know their whereabouts. This makes it the perfect time to get an estimate of your population.
Tall Timbers Research Station, along with many partners, pioneered the method beginning in the late 1990s and it has grown in use since then. The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative has adopted the fall covey count as one of several surveys they and member states are using to monitor quail for the NBCI’s Coordinated Implementation Program. (You can find out more about the method on the Tall Timbers website (http://talltimbers.org/how-many-bobwhite-coveys-are-there/ ). We hope you will spend some time on this site.)
The method is very simple, but logistical complexity increases with property size. The larger your property, the more observers you will need, or the more mornings you will need to conduct point counts on your own. But don’t get bogged down in complexities. For our purposes this year we want to keep it simple. As you read through the method description on the TTRS website, you’ll come to a section that shows some crazy looking formulas – don’t sweat those, all we want you to do is count coveys and report the number heard per point to us. We will do the rest and we’ll give you an approximate assessment of your population. The main thing is, it is fun to go out on a crisp, frosty morning and “see what you hear.” About every time I go, something interesting happens.
All you really need to do is get to your listening post 45 minutes before sunrise and listen for calling quail coveys until sunrise. Studies have shown that most calling occurs between 18 and 22 minutes before sunrise, but it varies. Getting there a few minutes before peak insures coveys have time to settle down and you don’t miss any calling. Never heard a covey call? Many have not, but on the TTRS website there is a playable MP3 file. You can also visit the Cornell University Ornithology Lab website (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Bobwhite/sounds ) and listen to the “Hoyee-like” call.
Setting up your listening point, or points, is fairly simple. Most of us can hear a quail covey for about 500 yards, so if you have a small property, a few hundred acres or less, one or two points may be all you need. It is best to use an aerial photograph, or map of your property, along with your knowledge of the land to set up points. Try to minimize listening area overlap where possible.
If you believe you have a low density of quail, it may also help to use a stimulator call. I use an old “boom box” with a tape of the covey call. If I do not hear coveys calling on their own by about 15 minutes before sunrise, I play the call loudly and listen for responses. Some quail hunters I know can make the call reliably with their own whistling. Hey, whatever works! If you have a high density of quail, one covey calling will stimulate the rest to call and stimulators are not necessary.
But this year, just go out and listen and have fun, don’t stress over details unless you really like details. We’ll make our survey period this year October 15th through 31st. If you have help you can do multiple points in one day, or if going it alone, do as many as are needed at different points during that time period. Report your results to me by a simple e-mail stating: date, county, number of acres covered, number of points surveyed, and number of quail coveys heard per point.
For example – you survey three points – you hear 1 covey at one point, none at another and 4 at the third point – That’s 5 coveys divided by 3 points, or 1.7 per point. If you have a large property and get help from your family or friends, tally up the results from all points surveyed by everyone. Or, to keep it simple, just send in the number of coveys heard and the number of points surveyed, we’ll figure out coveys per point.
Also, it is critical we get reports even if no coveys are heard. This is important. If you conduct a count and don’t hear any, send that report in, too, and don’t despair. Keep working on the habitat. We have an increasing number of cases where folks are doing the habitat work and quail are showing up. Remember, keep it simple, make it fun, be a part of Virginia’s first annual “Great October Quail Covey Count.” Send reports to: marc.puckett@dgif.virginia.gov.
Oct. 5, 2015
