eNews
Vol 5 | No 4 | November 2012
Ready, Set … Hunt!!
By Theron Terhune, Outreach & Education Coorinator
I have to say that fall is by far my favorite time of year! I love most everything about this time of year: the cooler mornings; the brilliance and varied fall colored leaves; the welcoming “koi-lee” sound of the distinct bobwhite covey call; and, of course, the anticipation of the next “big” hunt. I haven’t, however, figured out who enjoys hunting season more me or my bird dog, Gerti!
Gerti ready for the next duck to drop and, now, anxiously anticipating the next hunt. Are you ready?
For many though, this time of year is the busiest and most challenging. An ongoing challenge of many wild quail managers is not only adequately managing habitat to ensure quality hunting but also tracking bobwhite populations, harvest rates, evaluating hunting success and dog performance, and coordinating hunts, feeding schedules and predation management program.
As such, to aid land managers and land owners, Tall Timbers has partnered with CoveyIQ to help address these challenges and to bring you the latest and greatest technology, affording wild quail plantations a valuable way to collect and archive relevant quail hunting information, such as coveys found, dogs pointed, and number of birds harvested. During September, we hosted our second land managers luncheon where more than 25 folks learned about CoveyIQ. Luncheon attendees discovered that CoveyIQ provides a nice, user-friendly platform for entering data and evaluating hunting success and even allows you to customize year-end reports. The CoveyIQ system is accessible by computers (at the office) and mobile (in the field) devices, where users just need internet access to get started and log hunting data. In addition to quail hunting information, CoveyIQ users can plan where and where to hunt or when/where to feed, as well as collect predation management information. For more information about CoveyIQ, visit their website at http://www.coveyiq.com/ or email Theron.
In the near future, we hope to incorporate CoveyIQ into land management tools being developed at Tall Timbers such as web mapping applications, population monitoring tools and other management decision tools. This integration and accumulation of data over time will help Tall Timbers game bird scientists to advance quail research by studying anonymous hunting data at regional scales with the intent to better inform quail conservation landscape-wide.
This past luncheon on CoveyIQ was a great one, but there are many more to come! Many thanks to those sending in comments and suggestions for future land managers luncheons. Here are the topics and tentative time periods for Next Year’s (2013) Luncheons:
- Jan/Feb – Best Management Practice in Prescribed Fire
- Apr/May – Use and Application of Herbicides
- July – Utilizing Conservation Incentive Programs to your Advantage (e.g. FB and Safe Harbor)
- Sept/Oct – Evaluating your Wildlife Population (predators, quail, songbirds, etc.)
