Last week was my first full work working at Manasass National Battlefield Park (MNBP) and it sure was a busy one! We started with a couple days of quail surveys to determine the distribution and population of Northern bobwhite quails (Colinus virginianus) in the park.
The bobwhite quail is a ground-nesting bird, whose distinct call can be heard all along the east coast and is also a popular game species for hunters. However, in the last few decades the bobwhite population has decreased moderately rapidly and has been placed on the "Near Threatened" list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This rapid decline is due largely to habitat loss from human activities, such as urban sprawl.
To help population conservation efforts, MNBP released ~300 quails around the park two years ago. Quail surveys help monitor how well the population is surviving and helps determine which areas they tend to prefer. The surveys themselves are fairly simple: go to one of the 19 permanent survey locations around MNBP and for 5 minutes and look for one of the many bobwhite quail calls. Their calls sound something like this.
Unfortunately we did not hear or see any bobwhite quails either of the two mornings we went out (sorry the quest was a little anticlimactic, folks). However, we heard and saw many other birds such as the red-wing blackbird and the meadow lark. We also saw many deer prancing through the meadows. They looked so majestic against the gold-tinted early morning sky.
There are still a few more surveys planned for the next coming weeks so hopefully I will get to see or hear a Northern bobwhite quail before the summer is over!
The bobwhite quail is a ground-nesting bird, whose distinct call can be heard all along the east coast and is also a popular game species for hunters. However, in the last few decades the bobwhite population has decreased moderately rapidly and has been placed on the "Near Threatened" list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This rapid decline is due largely to habitat loss from human activities, such as urban sprawl.
To help population conservation efforts, MNBP released ~300 quails around the park two years ago. Quail surveys help monitor how well the population is surviving and helps determine which areas they tend to prefer. The surveys themselves are fairly simple: go to one of the 19 permanent survey locations around MNBP and for 5 minutes and look for one of the many bobwhite quail calls. Their calls sound something like this.
Unfortunately we did not hear or see any bobwhite quails either of the two mornings we went out (sorry the quest was a little anticlimactic, folks). However, we heard and saw many other birds such as the red-wing blackbird and the meadow lark. We also saw many deer prancing through the meadows. They looked so majestic against the gold-tinted early morning sky.
There are still a few more surveys planned for the next coming weeks so hopefully I will get to see or hear a Northern bobwhite quail before the summer is over!