Managing for Bobwhite Quail in Texas: Play Ball for Bobwhites
Article and photos by Dr. Dale Rollins, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, San Angelo
I sometimes market myself as “the second DR from Hollis, Oklahoma.” Those with ties to the University of Texas know who the first one was: legendary football coach Darrel Royal. Coach Royal passed away recently but no doubt his legend will live on. It will for me, but not because of football, but softball. Huh?
I played football for Hollis High School albeit long after Darrell Royal did. But when I played (1970-73) there was a small note permanently tacked to the bulletin board in the locker room. Its message read “If your team scores, you may win. If the other team scores, you may lose. If the other team never scores, you will never lose—defense wins ballgames.” Now, I don’t know that exhortation was from Coach Royal, but it could’ve been.
Just as in football, or any other sport, a good defense is important to quail also. Hence we always speak of “quality” habitat. But what’s an easy way to assess such for quail?
Much of my life, and especially the last twenty years, hve involved bird dogs. But there was a period in my life from 1978–1991 where I was bird dog-less. Proving that “Nature abhors a vacuum,” another avocation filled my void—slow-pitch softball. I was a pitcher and spent many nights and weekends in tournaments.
On one of my dog-walks several years ago, an idea struck me to search for similarities between the two pastimes. Hence, I offer here the “Softball Habitat Evaluation Technique” (SHET) for evaluating quail habitat. (Note: be careful with your enunciation!) As everyone has played a game of softball at some time in their lives, the softball analogy is a useful abstract with which even novice habitat managers can relate. See if the following doesn’t conjure a vivid mental picture of what your landscape should look like for quail.
Setting the stage
Behold the softball, which represents a quail. It’s about the same size as a quail and shares some common dilemmas. Every time a softball is in the air, someone triess to catch it or whack it, and it’s defenseless. Pretty much the same dilemma faced by a bobwhite every day of its life. Some oftballs have the phrase “restricted flight” stamped on them. It is by design that you cannot hit a softball as far as a baseball or golfball. The light-colored breast muscle (i.e., relative lack of myoglobin as compared to migratory birds with dark breast muscles) effectively renders quail as “restricted flight.” It takes a big hitter to knock a softball 300 feet which is about the flight distance of a quail. Pretty much everything a quail is going to encounter within any given hour is within a 2-acre area. And when the game starts, a bobwhite always seems to head towards one of the “bases”, i.e., escape coverts.
Consider the dimensions of a softball field—it’s 60 feet between bases, 46 feet from the pitcher’s mound to home plate, and usually about 270 feet down the right field line. Arms extended wide represent the size of the both batters’ boxes together while home plate is about the size of a large cake pan. The area contained within a softball field is slightly more than an acre, and that contained within the infield is about 0.1 acre. There are 10 defensive players instead of 9 as in baseball, with the extra defensive player (the “rover”) usually positioned in the outfield. Defensive players are bunched more closely in the infield, more sparsely in the outfield.
Pause for a moment to envision where those defensive players are positioned. Now seek to have a “quail house” (escape covert) located in similar positions. A quail house is any kind of shrub at least the size of a Volkswagen beetle. Shrubs like lotebush, sandplum, agarito, littleleaf sumac, and others satisfy these blueprints, as do larger mottes of cacti.
How much cover, and where?
The first element of habitat that I evaluate is the abundance and spacing of brush cover. The woody cover requirement for decent bobwhite habitat is met if you can throw a softball from one quail house to the next. This is a key lesson from SHET.
Here’s a “pitch” for better nesting cover which is often a limiting factor on rangelands in the Rolling Plains. If you can toss the softball the distance of 46 feet (i.e., pitcher’s mound to home plate) and still see the ball, then your grazing is too close for good quail cover. Lighten up on your stocking if you are a fan of quail. A suitable clump of perennial bunchgrass (e.g., little bluestem) about the size of home plate satisfies nesting cover for bobwhites. Prickly pear should be about the size of both batter’s boxes together to be useful as nesting cover. Manage for at least 30 potential nesting clumps of grass (i.e., 300 per acre) or 5 clumps of prickly pear (50 per acre) within the area prescribed by the base paths.
Grass can get too thick for quail if it impedes their travel, although this is rarely a concern west of the 98th meridian. I judge this by how a pitched ball behaves when it hits the ground. If the ball “sticks” upon contact (i.e., does not roll), then the grass is too thick. But if the ball rolls any distance at all, the vegetation is not too thick. When you consider a newly-hatched chick’s lack of mobility, it’s good to consider ease of access at their height (two inches). If you can drop a golfball (which represents a chick), and can roll it with your foot through the vegetation, the vegetation at ground level is appropriate for chicks.
Now let’s cover some other “bases.” The proper placement of one’s defense is key in softball; and so it is with quail. If you cannot throw a softball (in the air, roll doesn’t count) from one quail house to another, consider improving the distribution of woody cover. Good quail houses should be least the area of both batters’ boxes together; their height should be between maximum strike range (about chest high) to maximum pitching arc (12 feet).
There are at least four other ways in which quail habitat and the game of softball are similar.
1. Three strikes and you’re out. If you fail on food, water and cover, don’t worry about having any quail show up for your next game.
2. When a quail comes up to hit (i.e., be the batter) everybody it looks at is trying to get him “out.” Such it is in quaildom; death from above and death in the tall grass. But they’re are some areas on the diamond where the quail is safe (i.e., the bases). The closer the bases, the more secure the runner (quail) is.
3. There are 12-15 people on a softball team (including those in the dugout), and about the same in a covey. As long as they’re in the dugout (i.e., heavy cover), they’re safe. But sooner or later, each one must face his destiny against the opposing team. They can’t win if they don’t score (i.e., reproduce).
4. Finally, there’s a fellow in a ight blue shirt who stands behind the catcher. What do you call him? (Depends on his last call, eh?) He/she is the umpire. He dictates the flow of the game, and interprets the rules. He decides what’s fair and foul; who’s safe and who’s out. He decides if a game is called because of weather or darkness. Hecklers may call him blind.
Opposing managers often beseech him to see things their way, but ultimately, it’s his call, and his alone. That individual, my friend, is you—the landowner.
I urge you to brush up on the rules of the game and be diligent as the game transpires. No matter what, keep your eye on the ball.
Now, let’s play ball!
For a webisode on SHET, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xVPAVLymn0 .