[TN-Bird] Re: Bobwhite quail need more help
- From: "Roger Applegate" <Roger.Applegate@xxxxxx>
- To: <pandion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,<TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:25:32 -0500
This is heartening news to know as I have often felt that there should
be good bobwhite numbers there because of the land use pattern.
Roger D. Applegate
Small Game Coordinator
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Ellington Agricultural Center
PO Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
PH: 615/781-6616
FAX: 615/781-6654
Email: roger.applegate@xxxxxxxxxxx
UPS Address: 440 Hogan Road
Nashville, TN 37220
FedEx Address: 5107 Edmonson Pike
Nashville, TN 37211
>>> Alice Loftin / Don Miller 10/12/11 8:27 PM >>>
p { margin: 0; }October 12, 2011
I have read with interest the various posts on bobwhites today and
thought I should add a few comments.
I have kept daily bird records since January 1, 1994--most of which
pertain to Greene County , where I live--and have been pleasantly
surprised to have observed (heard, mostly) relatively a sizable number
of bobwhites. In quite a few instances, the observations are of the
same birds in or near the same locations, but in the aggregate, the
picture is one of fairly widespread observations everywhere in the
county except in heavily forested areas. I have even encountered
bobwhites inside the Greeneville city limits.
Almost all of my observations have been of birds in early successional
habitats, and a great many of them have been on or near properties
managed by TWRA. In fact, there are enough of these sites to allow me
to predict with a fairly high degree of confidence where and when I will
find a bobwhite. I often try to find one on our spring and fall counts
to ensure minimal representation for the species.
Greene is still an agriculturally significant county, and this surely
has something to do with my findings,as many farm owners allow part of
their property to revert to old fields. However, as parts of the county
die off agriculturally, some land also reverts to old fields before it
is sold for subdivisions or whatever, and this probably produces some
bobwhite habitat for a short time.
In any case, for various reasons, Greene is still a place where one is
not stunned to hear or see a bobwhite. It is one of my passionate hopes
as a resident of the county and a birder that concerted efforts by
professionals and dedicated amateurs can secure a happy future for these
magnificent animals.
Don Miller
Greeneville, Greene Co., TN
From: "Roger Applegate"
To: Viclcsw@xxxxxxx, tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 7:05:19 PM
Subject: [TN-Bird] Re: Bobwhite quail need more help
This is a very timely topic. Next week at the TWRACommission meeting in
Nashville, Don McKenzie, who is the director of theNational Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative will be speaking briefly to the TWRACommission.
Don's program, known as the NBCI, is headquartered in Knoxville atUT.
This program is supported by TWRA and the state wildlife agencies of
20+states and counting. A national plan for restoring this bird has been
launched,in a revised form, and each participating state will be
preparing an NBCIplan to show how they can accomplish restoration. TWRA
has drafted such a planand is awaiting its adoption in some form.
As comments to some of the biological issues raised, I have made it my
life'sgoal to know everything that is known about the ecology and
biology ofbobwhites from the physiology of the cell all to way out to
landscapesconsisting of the entire bobwhite range in the world (New
England toGuatemala). In fact I have written a book on this subject that
lacks apublisher because bobwhites aren't even of importance to the
publishingbusiness. I am also conducting PhD research on this bird in my
spare time.Completed dissertation is about 5 years away. This is my
qualification foranswering or commenting on these questions.
Now for the comments: We don't know how many bobwhites there need to be
in a"community" in order to maintain a viable population. I
wouldestimate, based on what we know, that it is several hundreds. What
we
areconfident in, is that it requicontiguous acresof really good habitat in
order to sustain a viable
population, whatever thatnumber may be. And yes the domesticated forms
are bad news to populations.Mississippi State Univ. demonstrated this at
Ames Plantation.
A final note, one of the things to understand about BBS isthat there are
issues with the way it is conducted that question how wellbobwhites are
detected. First of all, it is run too late in the spring seasonto detect
the largest numbers of bobwhites. Also, the analysis of this surveyis
complicated and can barely to understood by anyone with less than a PHD
inmath and statistics. Therefore, its interpretation is not straight
forward.This does not, however, preclude that fact that it is
unfortunately all we haveto go on at this point. And I do believe the
declining trend. The real issue isthat you can?t extrapolate from the
data that bobwhites will be extinct in aspecific year. They are already
extinct in localized areas of the state, andcountry, but are quite
numerous in others (although few others probably). Bobwhites respond
well to management but ithas to be the right management. They evolved
with old field successional habitatsmaintained by natural and Native
American disturbance and thrive only whereland use accidentally provides
these. The dominating dogma over the past 50 to 70 years has held that
youneeded to ?farm? for bobwhites. Cropped farm land is a very poor
surrogate forthis bird.
Finally, and I apologize for making this so long, in caseyou are
wondering, there is yet any evidence that bobwhites can be restored
bytrap and transfer where they no longer exist. You can supplement areas
withexisting populations if you wish, and this works, but there is
little need todo this. If no bobwhites are there, you have to make is
possible for already existingbirds to colonize on their own. That means
you have to improve habitatimmediately adjacent to areas that already
have bobwhite populations. There are many more details to all of
thisbut will leave it at this. Ask any questions you like and I will
have answersif answers are known. Also, we desperately need to fund
contemporary researchon this bird.
Roger D. Applegate
Small Game Coordinator
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
Ellington Agricultural Center
PO Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
PH: 615/781-6616
FAX: 615/781-6654
Email: roger.applegate@xxxxxxxxxxx
UPS Address: 440 Hogan Road
Nashville, TN 37220
FedEx Address: 5107 Edmonson Pike
Nashville, TN 37211
>>> 10/12/11 11:14 AM >>>
Thank you, Bill, for this insightful Breeding Bird Survey analysis. It
is apparent that we ALL need to put our heads together, not as separate
organizations, but all conservation groups as one community, to see what
in addition to current efforts can be done to help the bobwhite quail in
our state, and in our country. Shouldn't the bobwhite quail be listed
as endangered in Tennessee/in the USA?
Approximately nine years ago, I heard Ralph Dimmick, a biologist and
expert on the bobwhite quail, speak at the sandhill crane festival at
Birchwood. His words impressed me at that time, and the concern he
raised for this species has remained with me. He showed graphs and
described a community ecology that predicted the decline that is
reported in Bill's analysis below. He likened the bobwhite quail and
its breeding community to the passenger pigeon whose extinction could
not be predicted with numbers ecology. The extinction of the passenger
pigeon happened for many reasons, but one of the chief reasons was, it
declined below the community size required for breeding.
Do we know the numbers of bobwhites that must exist in a community
inorder for breeding to occur? It is well known, that neither the
wildness of this species nor its community ecology can be taught by
humans. There will be no reintroduction of this bird if it's wild
community ecology is lost. They become like domestic chickens, wi
thout
defense against predatiallowed on the listserve) Bill Pulliam's graph and
analysis of the
breeding bird surveys for bobwhite quail.
In the alternative, please also visit the link to Bill's website to see
his entire report. It is very interesting. Bobwhites are found in the
group "waterfowl to herons".
http://bbill.blogspot.com/2011/09/breeding-bird-survey-in-
tennessee-45.html
Northern Bobwhite
35 year change: -26.00 (-78%) ± 2.11
This is one of the most disturbing graphs that came out of this project.
Not only has this formerly abundant bird shown a drastic decline, the
drop appears to be linear (possibly even accelerating). Projecting this
line forward shows a Bobwhite that has been effectively extirpated from
Tennessee in 2014 -- just three years away. If you look at the change
from 1966 to 2010 (rather than the difference in the 10-year averages),
the decline is nearly 90%. In the 1960s this was one of the most
abundant species on Tennessee BBS routes; in recent years it is has not
been detected at all on many of them.
Vickie Henderson
Knoxville, TN
Knox County
In a message dated 10/11/2011 11:31:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
littlezz@xxxxxxxxx writes:
I have done some examinations and analyses of the 45 years of
Breeding Bird Survey data for Tennessee (1966 through 2010) and
posted some of the results on my blog:
http://bbill.blogspot.com/2011/09/breeding-bird-survey-in-
tennessee-45.html
Though some species have shown major declines since the BBS began in
1966, and one (Bewick's Wren) has been all but extirpated, overall
the story is quite positive. Most species have increased during this
time, with a median change of +66%. Raptors and forest birds have
fared the best overall. Non-neotropical migrant forest species have
on average tripled in abundance; raptors have shown a median increase
of nearly 8-fold! Even the beleaguered neotropical migrants have for
the most part held steady or increased.
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
Other related posts:
