Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, s-byrns@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Dale Rollins, 325-653-4576, d-rollins@tamu.edu
ROBY – “Restoration of Quail and Their Habitats” will be the theme of the 7th annual Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch Field Day set from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 26 at the ranch 11 miles west of Roby on U.S. Highway 180.
The field day is being co-sponsored by the research ranch and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s legislatively funded “Reversing the Decline of Quail Initiative.”
“This year’s theme is fitting seeing that we’re looking at the best quail season the state has had since 2008,” said Dr. Dale Rollins, AgriLife Extension wildlife specialist at San Angelo and the ranch’s director.
“Most of Texas has seen a decent rebound in the quail populations, both bobwhites and blues,” he said. “Some areas have seen a surprisingly good rebound.”
Rollins said the field day tour topics will include updates on the quail restoration projects, renovation of Conservation Reserve Program fields to enhance their use as quail habitat and demonstrations of several research methodologies used at the ranch.
After a catered lunch, updates will be provided on the Texas Quail Index, the three-year disease study Operation Idiopathic Decline and future plans on the ranch.
“This should be a great field day,” Rollins said. “The ranch enjoyed some great quail-making weather in May and June, then July and August proved to be a reality check. We’ve recorded 96 nests by our radio-marked hens thus far this summer, compared to only a total of 108 nests over the past four years. I’m anxious to see if the various indices we use to track quail abundance will confirm what we’re seeing during our daily travels around the ranch.”
Rollins said he’s especially pleased with the response of transplanted blue quail introduced to the ranch.
“We translocated 78 blues trapped from various ranches west of San Angelo last March,” he said. “They were sequestered for 30 days in ‘surrogators’ used to imprint young birds to a particular location. These birds were released in late April. As of this point, their survival, site fidelity and nesting success has been better than I would have predicted.”
Three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units will be available.
Individual preregistration is $10 until Sept. 19 and $20 thereafter and upon arrival.
For more information and to preregister, contact Mary Lynn Nelms at 325-653-4576 or ml-nelms@tamu.edu .
Go to the ranch’s website at http://www.quailresearch.org for program updates.
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