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For Bobwhites, Scale Matters

By John Morgan

The first thing that comes to my mind when you mention the word “scale” is what damage the last buffet did to my waistline!  In the bobwhite world, scale has a far different meaning.  The reason we’ve had so much success with bobwhite on Shaker Village has everything to do with scale, and believe me, the bobs are fat and happy!

Scale at Shaker Village isn’t about the buffet of weed seeds and bugs the habitat produced, but about the extent of the project area.  Words simply can’t express what a 1,000-acres of bobwhite habitat looks like in a sea of overgrazed and hayed fescue!  Only walking or driving around puts the project in the right perspective.  Every field you come to that was once a wasteland is now a Mecca.  Yep, my prose didn’t even do it justice!

For at least two decades, we have been preaching that bobwhite need habitat.  We’ve spent the vast majority of those years scattering patches of bobwhite habitat over a 25.6 million-acre state.  Occasionally,  we do a project 50 acres or larger that would generate a covey or two, and a big time project might be a couple hundred acres and get us a half dozen coveys.   Sometimes we do projects of similar size and get absolutely nothing!  Truth be told, we didn’t really know if we’d get quail or not.

Today, we still can’t guarantee a bobwhite response, but we’re trying to learn from our 20 years of experience.  The keys to getting a good quail response are based on two primary factors – having some quail to begin with and scale. Both were present at Shaker Village with 6 -10 wild coveys to build from and then 1,000-acres of new habitat created in a two-year period.  Bobwhite, known for their boom and bust potential, finally showed us what a boom looked like. Viola – 40 coveys! (And bear in mind those 40 coveys came without the “silver bullets” of pen-raised quail releases, predator control or food plots. Stay tuned to future posts for more on those!)

Scale seems like a simple concept. Do a big project and get a big response.  Well, it’s just not that easy.  Lots of things fell into place on the Village -- money, manpower, a remnant quail population, and weather all converged to create a Kentucky miracle – “Bob- white!”  Coordinating and making a big project hit the ground is extremely difficult.  Rarely, can you find a circumstance where you can plop 1,000-acres of habitat side by side by side in two year period.  What is more likely is a field here, a field there, a field half mile over there; I think you get my drift!

Getting bobwhite back isn’t easy.  Next time we’ll introduce a third factor to this puzzle called connectivity, because I think I’ve given you enough to chew on this time.  I know many of you have tried bringing back bob.

Why did it work?

Why didn’t it work?

Let’s hear from you.

 

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John Morgan

John Morgan

Small Game Coordinator

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife

John Morgan hails from a small, rural town in northern Pennsylvania.  His introduction to upland gamebirds began as youth with feeble attempts to wingshoot the state bird, the ruffed grouse. Despite his lack of wingshooting prowess, time afield with his dad and brother fostered a passion for managing the wildlife resource.  He learned the wildlife profession at Penn State University (BS) and the University of Georgia (MS).  His relocation to the South for his Master’s continued with a 3-year stint managing 30,000-acres of Florida’s wildlife management areas.

Growing tired of the seemingly endless Florida summer, John took his exploits to Kentucky as the small game biologist. He’s remained there for 8 years and has served the last 6 years as the Department’s small game coordinator.

In April 2008, he co-authored the “Road to Restoration:  The Blueprint for Restoring Northern Bobwhite in Kentucky”.   The accelerator has been to floor ever since trying to make the plan a reality on the ground.

Although his wingshooting has only slightly improved, he still enjoys time afield in search of upland gamebirds, deer, and turkeys.  He, his wife, Bobbi, and daughter enjoy tinkering on their hobby farm managing for wildlife and trying to grow a vegetable or two.  They are looking forward to training their new German wirehaired pointer pup.

Ben Robinson

Ben

Small Game Biologist

Department of Fish an Wildlife Resources

Ben was born and raised in Mercer County Kentucky.  His passion for hunting and the outdoors began at an early age and has been somewhat of an obsession since harvesting his first squirrel at 10 years old.

His love of nature led him to Eastern Kentucky University where he was trained in wildlife management.  Following graduation, Ben worked briefly at Tall Timbers Research Station before returning to Kentucky to work for the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.  The Red Hills of South Georgia spawned two new obsessions for Ben, bobwhite management and southern belle's.

The former became a reality when Ben became Small Game Biologist for the department in 2006.  Perhaps his biggest accomplishment was landing that southern belle, his wife Jennifer.  Together they are being trained by their young bird dog, a Gordon setter named Lucy.

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