Can Quail Come Back in PA?
Lots of people, even if they’re not conscious of it, would like more quail. They’d like to hear them, see them if they’re lucky, just know they’re there.
The steps to do that include less development (not happening) and more habitat management (not happening enough – yet – but some good folks are working on it).
Tom Venesky of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader recently wrote a column about this, following are some highlights:
> He says something is “conspicuously absent from the pristine area encompassing Montour, Columbia and Northumberland counties,” but it’s not pheasants, deer, turkey or rabbits. It’s “bobwhite quail,” which are native to PA.
> The region he’s talking about “is reminiscent of the open spaces of South Dakota and other western states. I was surrounded by vast fields of warm-season grasses intermingled with active farm fields.” Pheasants, yes, but “why not quail?”
> Wes Coltrane, a regional director for Quail Unlimited, noted that “pheasants and quail share the same habitat…but the diminutive upland gamebird will need a little help, perhaps more than the wild pheasants. Although quail are native to Pennsylvania, the state is at the northern fringe of the bobwhite’s range. That makes them susceptible to harsh winters and perhaps that is one reason why the quail’s numbers have plummeted so low in the state….”
> “But with the vast amount of prime habitat in the central Susquehanna area, there is no reason why coveys of wild quail couldn’t make it through a bad Pennsylvania winter. And that leads to a second hurdle: numbers.”
> “Unlike pheasants, Coltrane said quail need to be trapped and relocated as an entire covey. Making the hurdle even higher is the fact that most states aren’t willing to give up significant numbers of their quail coveys.”
> To help make that happen, a QU chapter is needed. Anyone interested should give Coltrane a call at 1-252-430-1224.
Category: Northern Bobwhite, PA, Quail Unlimited
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