Following a spring headlined by mild temperatures and cascades of rainfall, quail hunters across the state are calling one another in search of encouraging reports. Have you seen any chicks yet? Do you think this rain is going to last? Will it have any real effect on the bobwhite quail forecast?
Meanwhile, early surveys at the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation’s facility in Fisher County have provided numbers brimming with nostalgia only halfway through the breeding season (typically from April through September). By comparison, the entire 2022 breeding season produced 44 nests at the research ranch, whereas the team already recorded 48 nests this year by mid-June.
Perhaps no Texas game species is as volatile as the bobwhite, which is evidenced by the massive swings in hunting success year over year. However, unlike many other states that have watched wild quail hunting vanish, Texas has boasted seasons in the past decade that weren’t just good, but outstanding.
To estimate the bird numbers across the state each year, wildlife officials drive more than 3,330 miles through quail habitat and count visible birds. Among the regions with the most drastic tilts has been the Rolling Plains, where officials counted an average of 38.17 birds per route between 2015 and 2017, and a mere 2.92 between 2018 and 2022.
This year, however, the Gentleman Bob’s rebound feels more like a mirage after years of Texas’ oft-lingering droughts and life-sucking temperatures. The numbers are real, though, as similar to the state’s most recent quail boom, RPQRF is once again seeing positive returns from forgiving weather conditions.
“I know you can’t see it, but our ranch looks awesome right now,” said Adam Vonderschmidt, a lead technician who works on the ranch. “The grass, the early forbs, the wildflowers and the rest of the vegetation out here all look incredible.”
Purchased in 2006, the 4,820-acre ranch has recorded more than 380 bobwhite nests since 2010, tracking adult birds and tagging chicks to gather data on quail behavior and survival rates across a spectrum of wild habitats.
Despite bobwhites’ less-than-ideal stretch within the region, Vonderschmidt said optimism is indeed an appropriate outlook for 2023, which began with a historic start to the breeding season. Researchers on the ranch don’t normally start finding nests before May but recorded 19 in the month of April alone.
Roughly 42 percent of 43 nests are considered completed (meaning the brood experienced a successful hatch), with five nests still considered active.
“I think the rain and the environmental cues play a role in initiation,” Vonderschmidt said. “In terms of nest success, we’re right about at average for our ranch, but in terms of initiation, we’re definitely on the higher end this year, and I think that has a lot to do with the rainfall and the mild temperatures.”
The tracking process begins with three weeks of pre-baiting with milo seed before researchers deploy box traps with the same bait inside. Capturing an even number of male and female adult birds, researchers aim to have 200 birds collared at a time.
Once a technician notices a bird is stationary for two days, the team will assume it’s likely nesting and wait for the bird to leave the area so a technician can quickly approach to get a clutch count, make note of the vegetation and pinpoint the exact location via GPS without disturbing the nest.
Whenever the bird is off the nest during the 23-day incubation period, a technician will once again move in to check on the status of the brood. Once the eggs hatch, he or she will start a timer for one week. On the seventh day, they’ll build mesh paneling around the hen and the chicks to attempt a brood capture.
If successful, the technicians will issue the chicks patagial tags to assess their survival rate via band returns during the next round of trapping.
So far, the ranch has managed to tag 41 out of 192 hatched chicks — a 21-percent rate — but Vonderschmidt said the goal is to tag as many as possible.
“The chick stage of life is the least researched area of quail ecology,” he said. “We say the goal is 100 tagged chicks, but if we can just keep tagging all season, I’d be all for it. The more tags we get out, the more information we get back in December.”
Vonderschmidt expects nest initiation to continue at least through the end of August, although 2022 did see new nests all the way into October. The recent heatwave could slow things down, depending on how long triple-digit temperatures can sustain across the region, but the team remains encouraged by a groundbreaking breeding season.
“We’re quickly approaching our all-time record for nests on the ranch,” he said. “It’s been an unbelievable year so far.”
Stay tuned for more info on the Texas bobwhite quail forecast as the season gets closer.
