Quail numbers down statewide, up in managed areas

2008 will not go down in history as a banner year for Missouri quail hunters, but bobwhites are making a comeback in places where sporting groups and conservation agencies have given the doughty little birds a fighting chance.
Quail are more at the mercy of the elements than deer and turkey, whose larger bodies enable them to survive extended periods of extreme cold and find food beneath ice and snow. Devastating ice storms in January and December 2007 hit quail hard, and biologists found quail frozen to death following a snow storm in northwestern Missouri. February and March were colder than normal, and another ice storm hit southwest Missouri and the Ozarks in February.
Torrential rains began in the spring. Quail can make second and even third nesting attempts if their initial efforts are drowned out, but flooding continued intermittently throughout the summer. The record-breaking rains took a terrible toll on bobwhite nests and on their bumble bee-sized hatchlings, which cannot survive prolonged wetting until their fuzzy plumage is replaced by more weather-proof feathers several weeks after hatching.
“Quail numbers were low going into the 2008 nesting season,” said Resource Scientist Beth Cole, who is the Missouri Department of Conservation’s top quail manager. “They had poor success rearing chicks this year, so we are going into fall with fewer quail than we have seen in quite some time.”
Surveys showed this year’s quail numbers down 12 percent from 2007 and 25 percent from the last 10 years’ average. The number of chicks counted was down. . .
Read the complete story in the October 30, 2008 print edition. Grab a copy today!