The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch conducted its annual roadside counts during September. The survey was delayed by approximately 4” of much-needed rain from September 1st to 3rd. This rainfall greatly benefited our vegetation, particularly annual broomweed, western ragweed, sawtooth daisy, as well as many of our grasses and woody plants. Once the roads dried, we began our surveys. We count quail observed along 2, 10-mile survey routes on RPQRR. One transect samples the east side of the ranch and the other the west side. Counts are conducted during early morning (within 2 hours of sunrise) and late-afternoon (last 2 hours of the day) using 3-4 observers. Counts are repeated 4 times during September.
We recorded an average of 11.7 birds per mile (combining Scaled and Bobwhite quail)—the best results we’ve observed since 2015-2016. This included 10.48 bobwhites per mile and 1.22 scaled quail per mile. Covey sizes ranged from 2 to 39 birds, with an average of 13 birds per covey. TPWD just released their annual roadside count trends; see Texas Bobwhite Quail Forecast – TPWD for the report.
We look forward to conducting our helicopter counts during the first week of November. Previous roadside counts tend to correlate highly with our helicopter counts. If you would like to implement either roadside counts or helicopter counts on your property, please reach out to me at mriggs@quailresearch.org for technical assistance. – by Mitchell Riggs
