Throughout the latter part of August, we saw a late push of nesting activity at our Erath County translocation site. On August 20, we located our 50th nest of the year. What makes this nest even more special is that it was the hen’s 3rd attempt of the year. She had previously hatched a clutch of 14, failed on nest no. 2, and began to lay her 3rd nest in late August.
We have documented a strong reproductive performance this year from our translocated bobwhites, particularly those translocated from west Texas. Overall nest initiation, which we define as total nests/no. hens alive May 1, is 0.93. This is our highest mark for any bobwhite translocation we have conducted to date. Quail translocated from west Texas had a nest initiation rate of 1.32, while south Texas had a rate of 0.71. Although west Texas birds are outperforming south Texas birds in terms of reproduction, both nest initiation rates are quite good. We are regularly seeing broods on the ranch of all different age classes! Fall covey call counts begin in October—we’ll keep you updated on the population response we see from this breeding season.
