The Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation announced in February (see e-Quail, Vol. 4, No. 2) that it had committed $2 million to investigate the potential role of various diseases and parasites.  Since that time, a team of scientists from several universities and NGOs have been drafting research proposals.  The proposals were reviewed by OID’s Oversight Committee which announces the following proposals have been funded.

The wildfire season of 2011 is one for the books.  Almost two million acres of west Texas had burned as of today.  It’s been bad, could’ve been worse, and may yet be.   To see a couple of photojournalistic accounts of recent blazes, see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378816/Texas-wildfires-Million-acres-scorched-towns-red-alert.html and http://m.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/04/texas-wildfires/100050/.



Much of the scorched acreage was some of Texas’ finest quail country.  So how do quail, and the habitats they depend upon, respond to such conflagrations?

One of the questions that often arises (usually from the media) is "how many wildlife were destroyed?"  My answer is "hardly any" which seems to disappoint them.  They want to extrapolate scenes from "Bambi" to the real world here in west Texas, and the truth of the matter is usually much less dramatic than Disney would portray. 

Even with the dramatic conflagrations we've seen over the past several weeks, I'd be surprised to hear of many deaths of game animals (deer, quail, turkey) with one possible exception:  deer contained within (smaller) high-fenced ("deer-proofed") enclosures.  Otherwise wild animals will find a way around, over, or through the fire front and escape the fire’s wrath. 

Certainly, if you witness or take pictures that document fire-related wildlife mortalities, I'd appreciate a copy of them for my files; please e-mail me at d-rollins@tamu.edu.  During wildfires in 2006 in Sterling County I saw a great-horned owl with its “horns” (i.e., ear tufts) and wing tips scorched and isolated deer that had burned.  But nothing to worry about—at least from a population perspective.

Deaths from less mobile species like snakes, tortoises, and armadillos are more likely to occur.  These animals typically seek underground burrows to escape their threats—if they find a suitable burrow, they’re probably fine, but if not, they’re toast.  Those that seek refuge up in trees (e.g., porcupines) are especially vulnerable.  I have seen pictures from wildfires in Mexico showing a black bear that had succumbed to the flames; its tendency to climb trees to escape threats didn’t work in the case of a wildfire.  Ditto for raccoons that often seek refuge in a hollow tree or under a brush pile.

I had a professor in college at Oklahoma State who often lamented that to address a dwindling herd of mule deer (which was widespread in western states during the 1970s) all that was needed was "a hot fire and a windy day."  His point was that both the game animals, and the habitats upon which they flourish, are indeed adapted to periodic catastrophic fires (witness Yellowstone).  Historically the fires that burned across the southern Great Plains were probably more like what we've witnessed in recent weeks than what we try to mimic feebly with our cool-season prescribed burns.
 
The timing of the fires from a quail’s perspective was of a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde fashion.  On the one hand large areas are devoid of nesting cover here on the eve of the nesting season.  On the other hand, had the areas burned in December a quail would have more threats (migratory raptors) than they might encounter now that the Cooper’s hawks and Northern harriers have likely moved further north.  And if La Nina doesn’t relinquish its grip soon, the nesting season will likely be toast, even on sites that didn’t burn.

So how long will it take quail to repopulate such areas?  The answer hinges on several factors, including soil type, plant community, scale of the fire (on your respective property), rainfall, and post-burn grazing management.  Selah—take stock of which of those are under your direct control—only grazing management.  Forewarned is forearmed.

Back in 1994, graduate student Philip Carter and I monitored radio-collared bobwhites and their response to February burns in Coke, Irion, and Tom Green counties.  We’d hoped to study impacts of large-scaled “moonscapes” on the subsequent survival and nesting of quail.  But unfortunately (well, at least for our hypothesis), our study sites were small (e.g., 300 acres) and “cool.”    Well Phillip, if you want to come back for your Ph.D., I know some larger landscapes on which to reconstitute your study.

A. S. Jackson, a Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist in the 1940s-50s, commented about quail recovery following a large wildfire in Hemphill County that burned on March 3, 1962.  “Only the larger trees were left standing.  Plum and sumac cover was burned off at the ground level.  During the three-month period (March—May), this block of some 30,000 acres remained without a vestige of habitat for quail.”    However, after rains fell in June “the sandhills were ringing with the calling of bobwhites.  When fall came, hunters reported the best hunting in the area that had been burned over.”

We monitored quail abundance for three years on six sites following the 2006 Panhandle fires (which burned a million acres).  Generally speaking, bobwhite populations rebounded better on sandy vs. clay-loam soils as one would expect based on the shrubs present (e.g. sand shinoak). 

If it’s economically feasible, rest burned areas from grazing for at least one growing season, if not longer.  If only a portion of your ranch burned, and total destocking isn’t feasible, adjust stocking rates to accommodate grazing preferences of livestock.  In other words, if 70 percent of your grazeable acres burned, then reduce stocking rates by 30 percent as stock will graze burned areas preferentially  (yea almost exclusively).

Sandy soils dominated by sand shinoak will bounce back the most quickly while more shallow soils dominated by cedars will be slower to recuperate.

Tragedies always do present opportunities, and indeed this one does relative to quail.  I’m seeking potential cooperators for "Operation Phoenix" as an effort to monitor quail response to large-scale wildfires.  As you recall the mythical bird Phoenix arose from its own ashes and was reborn in fire. 

As a doctoral candidate in Range and Wildlife Management at Texas Tech in the early 1980s I was introduced to the term ‘pyromancy’ — foretelling the future with fire.  To that end, the 2011 wildfire season was not unexpected.  It evolved as a “perfect storm” orchestrated first by El Nino weather patterns that transitioned (abruptly) into a strong La Nina.  Wildfire conditions could extend throughout the spring and summer across a large part of Texas, New Mexico, and western Oklahoma.   

I wonder if anyone has ever plotted the number of wildfires in Texas vs. the reign of La Nina.  If so, you’d expect wildfires to be fairly cyclic, about every four to five years.  Quail booms (and busts) here in the Rolling Plains historically have tracked the same weather-driven synchrony.

To summarize, aside from the very real concerns about houses, fences, livestock (and tragically two firefighters) fire is indeed a "natural" form of habitat management.  Wildfires just manage at a different scale than what we'd like to see, in a way that is incompatible with our positions on the landscape.

If you’d be interested in participating in Operation Phoenix contact me at d-rollins@tamu.edu.

The Park Cities Chapter of Quail Coalition came through again in big fashion as a supporter of RPQRR.  Their recent banquet netted $432,000 for RPQRR.  The PCQ is the proverbial wind under RPQRR’s wings.



Recent news releases about RPQRR’s disease initiative Operation Idiopathic Decline have received good coverage in various periodicals, including American Field and Field & Stream. 

The Horned Lizard Conservation Society will tour RPQRR over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.  Hopefully their childhood memories will be rekindled by the abundance of “horny toads” they see at RPQRR.

Plant of the month – Sandylily (Bractless Blazingstar)
(Mentzelia nuda)

This showy biennial forb is often seen on sandier soils and flowers from April – July at our latitude.  Mentzelias are the original “Velcro” so if you bump into it your jeans will document the encounter.  Seeds of sandlily look like pink-tinted fried eggs—you’ll find them occasionally in quail crops.  The seeds are contained in upright capsules and meter out as the fall winds blow.




(seed photo by Jose Hernandez - USDA-NRCS)
 

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Q: What is the latest that we can get a rain and still have a quail hatch? When do quail hatch during normal rain years? - PC

A: Typically a quail season here in the rolling Plainis is made with a June hatch. We can hatch quail here as late as October, but generally such late-hatches are a minor component of our production. If we don’t get good, widespread rains by early July, and a more temperate July and August, I’m doubtful we’ll have a decent quail hatch this year. South Texas has a longer growing season and can be the beneficiary of late-summer tropical storms, thus they have a better chance to snatch a quail hatch from the jaws of defeat.

Queach - A noun describing a thick, bushy plot; a thicket. Thanks to Bobwhite Brigade cadet Chris Coulombe of Lubbock for expanding our vocabulary.

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Why do quail “bob their heads” when they walk?? Most evidence suggests that the head bobbing serves a visual function.  Head-bobbing in walking birds is a method of "paralactic localization." Head bobbing is a unique feature in birds and occurs in at least 8 of the 27 families of birds.

That’s “meanwhile back at the ranch” . . . we finally radiomarked a bobcat with a GPS collar; its movements will be tracked relative to quail nesting habitat over the next six weeks. A total of seven roadrunners have also been radiomarked - (but only 4 are currently alive). Once their nests are located, video cameras will record prey delivery to the nestlings. Our summer interns report for duty later this month and will hit the ground running doing whistle counts.

The late Sherman Hammond had an interesting way of providing drinking water for blues on his ranch southwest of Ft. Stockton. He said it went against the grain for a rancher to knowingly let a water trough overflow, even though most wild critters would prefer to drink from ground-level than from a trough. Hammond reconciled his conscience by keeping his troughs brim-full—you couldn’t pour a teaspoon more in without a teaspoon overflowing. At this capacity, Hammond reckoned the blowing wind would “slosh” some water onto the ground, appeasing both the blues and any water-miser rancher. And when does the wind blow in Pecos County? Yep, continuously. Hammond was the nucleus for the “original Blues Brothers.” On his tombstone is etched a pair of blue quail.

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