Quail Hatch Report in Anticipation of Quail Season

As the 2021 breeding season came to an end, the anticipation of quail season was beginning to build. This summer the Tall Timbers’ Game Bird Program monitored breeding season demographics from a combined 1,152 radio-tagged birds from the Albany, Red Hills, and Central Florida regions.

Red Hills

Here in the Red Hills, there was reason for “cautious optimism” heading into the fall. Per capita female nest production was approximately 10% above average, and per capita brood production was approximately 15-20% above average across both of our study sites in the Red Hills, dating back to 2015. Male contribution was significant this year, as approximately 31% of our radio-tagged males in the Red Hills incubated a nest. Additionally, we documented a fairly strong late hatch, as 40% of all our recorded broods hatched after July 15, on both Tall Timbers and Livingston Place. This is encouraging given the late hatch is critical to fall populations. We documented summer survival well above average at Livingston Place (in fact record summer survival), compared to slightly below average survival at Tall Timbers. However, excellent cover conditions contributed to seemingly good chick survival, which, coupled with above average brood production, allowed us to feel encouraged heading into the fall.

That being said, as we navigated through the many covey call counts across properties of the Red Hills, a few interesting trends began to develop. We all knew we’d had a wet summer, but the central and western portions of the Red Hills appear to have been affected by the rains more so than properties in the eastern portion of the region, with a few exceptions. Untimely, isolated rain events can be detrimental to quail chicks, especially when these rains occur at night. After talking with many managers across the central and western portions of the region, many believe this is what happened. This explains in part, why quail densities across the central and western Red Hills appear to be down on average 20%, compared to last year. Tall Timbers has not been immune to this trend, as densities appear to be slightly down from last year as well.

As we move east across the Red Hills, the narrative begins to change. Properties in the eastern portion of the region appear to have been less affected by untimely rainfall and densities, on average, are similar or slightly up from last year. This trend compliments what we saw with our radio-marked birds on Livingston Place in the eastern Red Hills, as well as the density estimates across the property.

Often times, a population decrease is the result of weather and is out of our control. Fortunately, quail have a knack for bouncing back. Although any population decrease is discouraging, it is important to keep in mind that the Red Hills still hosts some of the highest bobwhite densities in the country, and this is a testament to the intensive management implemented by the highly-skilled managers throughout the region. The only thing left to do now is turn a dog loose and get out there. The best time of the year is upon us, and we am looking forward to seeing how the season unfolds.

Albany

Even with very good adult survival, per capita nest and brood production by radio-tagged hens in Albany were only about average for the 2021 nesting season. Male contribution to reproduction was also low, with less than 10% of males incubating a nest. While on the surface this does not sound like great news, this reflects very high population densities, and what we call “density dependent reproduction.” The full story begins with last fall’s populations in Albany, which were at or near record levels, and the overwinter survival or “carry-over” from them. In fact, in 2021, we documented the highest spring breeding population we have had during the 30 years of monitoring this population with a density of 2 birds/acre on April 1. This was followed by very good summer adult survival, and produced an end result of the highest annual survival we have ever recorded. Our annual survival (Oct 1, 2020 – Sept 30, 2021) was an unprecedented 37%, which means there is a little over 1 bird/acre still alive from last fall’s population.

The 2020 hunting season was put in the record books for many properties across the region, and most managers would have signed a lifetime contract to match the coveys per hour seen last year. Being that we are coming out of summer with great growing conditions, extremely high carryover, and even higher hopes, how this would all shake out in the fall population was on everyone’s mind. Over the past month, we completed fall covey counts on 20+ properties in the Albany area—what we have seen has been very encouraging. While we haven’t seen very many properties with huge gains or losses either way, most places are looking just as good or are slightly higher than last year’s population. This is promising considering the great numbers we saw last year. However, as many of you know, just because you have high densities coming into the season, you still need the weather, the dogs, and the birds to cooperate. We are hopeful to get some early frosts and rain, throughout the next month, to make them easier to find later in the season. While things in the quail woods around Albany look promising, we are cautiously optimistic as always. We love seeing the end product of the hard work that is done in the other 8 months of the year, and we are excited to hear how your season progresses.

Alabama

Mark Sasser, Tall Timbers regional game bird biologist for Alabama, reports that after the fall covey census work was completed on all cooperating properties, the quail population is very good this year. Surveys recorded stable or increasing populations from properties scattered across the state, from the Mobile area to the Birmingham area. The translocation site in north Alabama, Triple Creek Farm, located in St. Clair County, was the largest increase at 53%.

 

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