Hunting Success on Albany, Georgia Plantations: The Albany Quail Project\u27s Modern Quail Management Strategy

The Albany Quail Project began in March 1992 as a cooperative between Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and the private quail plantation community surrounding Albany, Georgia. The goal of this collaboration was to increase population densities and hunting success of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) on these properties. Issues important to the plantations were investigated via field research techniques (e.g. radio-telemetry) and then modifications in management regimes were put into practice. From 1992-2006 over 8,000 wild bobwhites were radio-tagged to study various demographic and population mechanism of bobwhites. The result has been a change in management style based on science creating the concept of Modern Quail Management (MQM) techniques. Bobwhite population densities and hunting success during the last decade on these properties have been higher and more stable than witnessed during any previous period in their history. On our primary study site during 1980-1996 the average number of coveys seen per hour was 3.9 (SE = 0.265) with a range of 2.7 - 6.5 (CV = 0.28). Following the implementation of MQM techniques this average during 1997-2005 increased to 7.7 (SE = 0.317) with a range of 6.9-9.7 (CV = 0.12) and population density has been maintained at or near 5 birds per ha. This manuscript provides a brief history of the Albany Quail Project, describes how results from these studies have contributed to the evolution of new management philosophies over the last decade, outlines what these changes have been, and describes how they have been successfully applied on numerous properties in the Albany area to improve bobwhite populations and hunting success

Northern Bobwhite Population Response to Intensive Modification of a Farm Landscape in Middle Georgia (Poster Abstract)

Region wide population declines of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) are well documented and believed to be primarily associated with landscape level changes in land use patterns across the southeast. While these declines have not occurred in the traditional ‘‘plantation belt’’ of southwestern Georgia, they are certainly evident throughout much of the rest of the state. In an effort to test the effectiveness of intensive bobwhite management techniques outside their traditional area, we used radio-telemetry, GIS, replicated whistling cock counts, and a fall covey census to monitor population response on one such typical middle Georgia farming landscape that is being intensively modified to benefit quail. Whitehall Plantation is a 3,734-ha farm in Laurens and Bleckley counties, Georgia whose history mirrors that of most of middle Georgia as well as much of the southeast. After many years of high populations and good quail hunting through the 1970s, most of the old fencerows were cleaned up to make way for bigger farm equipment. This was followed by a population decline throughout the 1980s that was made worse when the property was cleaned up even more to make way for center-pivot irrigation. The early 1990s marked a low point in the quail population with the landowners records showing only 10 coveys on the 567-ha core study area (1 bird/4 ha). The property at this point was made up of approximately 55% crop fields, 40% unmanaged woodlands, and 5% houses/pasture/ponds. Efforts to rebuild the population began in 1995 when all the dry land crop acreage was planted into longleaf pines, 15-m borders were developed around all the irrigated crop fields, and no-till farming practices were initiated. These efforts intensified in 1998 when the Albany Quail Project became associated with the property. At this time, all the agricultural fields were divided up with 15-m terraces, fall disking for brood range was initiated, and all the woodland acreage was silviculturally treated as needed. The goal was to make as much of the uncultivated acreage as possible usable space for quail. This has resulted in a landscape that is now 22% agriculture, 21% managed woodlands, 21% planted longleaf, 12% hedgerows and old fields, 10% mature hardwoods, 9% houses/pasture/pond, and 5% fallow land. In addition to these landscape modifications and habitat improvements, a year-round supplemental feeding and nest predator trapping program were initiated. Response to these efforts has been dramatic. Replicated whistling cock counts in June have increased 191% and a fall covey count census now shows approximately 45 coveys on this same 567-ha (1 bird/ha), a 400% increase. Year-round monitoring of a cumulative total of 440 radiomarked birds began in fall 1998 and has provided insights into the mechanisms behind this population response. A majority of the winter covey ranges, nest sites, and brood ranges are in planted longleaf, managed woodlands, or field borders/hedgerows, all habitats that did not exist five years ago. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates for Fall-Spring (58%), Spring-Fall (36%), and annual (21%) are well above those reported for similar southeastern landscapes and rival those of the intensively managed woodland hunting plantations farther south. Landowner satisfaction is high, as his perception is that his quail population and hunting success are as good now as they have been in his lifetime

Additional Evidence Against Radio-handicapping of Northern Bobwhites

The validity of radio-telemetry to produce reliable information (e.g., survival estimates) has recently been challenged. Radio-telemetry is a widely used technique in studies of numerous species, therefore, concerns regarding potential bias in these estimates warrant further investigation. As such, and as part of a larger study, we investigated 3 aspects of potential radio-bias: 1) variation in survival distributions among treatment (newly radio-tagged) and control (previously radio-tagged) groups; 2) proportion of trapped animals censored during the traditional 7-day censor period; and 3) ramifications to cause-specific mortality through estimation of harvest rate. Kaplan-Meier survival, based on 30-day post trapping, was similar between treatment (n = 901) and control (n = 293) bobwhites for all but 1 of 8 trapping sessions during 2000-2004. In this case, treatment bobwhites (0.970, SE = 0.015) had higher survival than control birds (0.878, SE = 0.042). We determined the effect of censoring relative to sample size was inconsequential for our analysis because the proportion of bobwhites (18 out of 1,350; 0.013) meeting the criteria for censoring, i.e., dying during the first 7 days, was minimal. Censoring of these data influenced survival estimates by an average of only 0.016 (SE = 0.004; range: 0.00 - 0.04). We evaluated harvest rate by comparing first year recovery rates of banded verses radio-tagged birds during thirteen hunting seasons occurring between 1992 and 2005. Annual recovery rate was not different (P \u3c 0.05) for banded birds and radio-tagged birds where harvest averaged 6.68% (range 3.3 - 11.7) and 6.65% (range 3.4 - 11.1), respectively. These findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating that radio-telemetry can provide reliable demographic information. However, we recommend that future researchers test for these potential effects among their data before making biological inferences

Northern Bobwhite Population Response to Intensive Mechanical Hardwood Clean-Up (Post Abstract)

Habitat degradation for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) has occurred in many fire-maintained pine forests of the southeastern Coastal Plain due to encroachment of undesirable hardwoods over time. This is especially true for old-field lands where the highly combustible native groundcover has been eliminated. A management technique gaining in popularity recently is the removal of these hardwoods to improve habitat conditions for bobwhites. We used radio-telemetry and plantation hunting records to measure population parameters and hunting success on 1 such property before, during, and after an intensive mechanical hardwood ‘‘clean-up.’’ An 800-acre hunting course on Nilo Plantation near Albany, Georgia was the study area for this project and is a site where we have maintained a continuous year-round sample of radiomarked bobwhites since fall 1993, that now cumulatively totals \u3e 500. These telemetry studies have revealed that bobwhite survival and reproductive output were declining and had reached low points the year prior to the initiation of hardwood clean-up. The clean-up operation consisted of mechanical felling of most mature hardwood in the pine uplands, followed by piling with root rakes, and then burning the piles. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates prior to the clean-up were Spring-Fall (15%), Fall-Spring (37%), and annual (6%). Cause specific mortality from avian depredation for the 2 Fall-Spring periods prior to clean-up averaged 35%. Broods produced per hen alive on 15 April was 0.42. During the 2 years since clean-up was completed, survival estimates have increased 2- to 5-fold now averaging: Spring-Fall (44%), Fall-Spring (73%), and annual (34%). Broods produced per hen alive on 15 April has almost doubled to 0.72. Cause-specific mortality from avian depredation during Fall-Spring has averaged only 6%. Plantation hunting success on this course had declined to a 20-year low of 3.2 coveys/hour but has since shown an almost 3-fold increase to a record high of 9.4 coveys/hour. This intensive hardwood clean-up has certainly improved the quality of the habitat on this site. We believe it also altered the predator context there by making the environment less suitable to the bobwhite’s natural enemies which contributed to the increased survival and reproductive output

Survival of Northern Bobwhites on Areas With and Without Liberated Bobwhites

Increases in pen-raised quail releases are often implicated in the precipitous region-wide decline of wild northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus). Therefore, we compared survival rates of wild radio-tagged northern bobwhites on a study area that received an influx of liberated pen-raised bobwhites from a neighboring property to those of wild bobwhites on a control area during 3 years in southwest Georgia. A total of 302 radio-tagged wild bobwhites were monitored on the wild-release (113) and wild-only areas (189) for a 22 week period from fall to spring each year during November 1993-April 1996. Fall-spring survival of wild bobwhites on the wild-only area (S = 0.43) was greater (P = 0.005) than that of wild bobwhites on the wild-release area (S = 0.18) for the 3 years combined. Losses to avian predation accounted for 38% and 58% of the fall population, respectively. Increased avian predation on the wildrelease area may have been attributed to avian predators attracted to the area

Efficiency of Pointing Dogs in Locating Northern Bobwhite Coveys

We studied the efficiency of pointing dogs in locating coveys of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) using radiotelemetry from 1992-1997 on 2 private hunting plantations in southwest Georgia. During these 5 hunting seasons, 169 hunts generated data on 838 encounters with 254 separate radio-marked coveys. Pointing dogs located 53% of the available coveys, 25% of which were never seen by the hunters due to evasive behavior by the birds. An additional 12% of encountered coveys were seen by the hunters even though they were never located by the dogs. This resulted in the hunters seeing a total of just over half (53%) and shooting into approximately one-third (32%) of the total radio-marked coveys they encountered. An evaluation of false pointing was conducted by examining cases when dogs pointed radio-marked coveys that were never seen by the hunters. Most (58%) of these unproductive points were caused by coveys running away from pointing dogs, but were also attributed to wild flushes (28%) and pointed coveys that held tight and refused to flush (14%). The percentage of radio-marked coveys seen by hunters was highly variable from day-to-day (x = 53%, range = 0-100%), but fairly consistent between years (x = 53%, range = 40-63% ). Information obtained using pointing dogs appears to be more practical for measuring population trends than it is as a census technique

Effects of Supplemental Feeding on Home Range Size and Survival of Northern Bobwhites in South Georgia

We studied the effects of supplemental feeding on fall-spring covey home range size and survival of radio-marked northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) for 3 years in southwest Georgia. A total of 372 radio-marked bobwhites were monitored on 2 separate study areas for 25 weeks from fall-spring each year from November 1993 through May 1996. The traditional supplemental feeding program of bi-weekly broadcast spreading of whole grains from November through May was discontinued on one of the study areas during 1993-1994 and 1994-1995. Supplemental feed was distributed on both areas during fall-spring 1995-1996. During the 2 years of no feeding, fall-spring covey home ranges were larger (P = 0.04) on the unfed study area. During the first of these 2 years (1993-1994), fall-spring survival of birds without supplemental feed (S = 0.127) was lower (P = 0.005) than that of fed birds (S = 0.432). During the 1994-1995 season while covey home ranges of birds without supplemental feed were still slightly larger (P = 0.04), there was no difference (P = 0.76) in survival between bobwhites on the sites with and without supplemental feed. Coveys seen per hour hunted was significantly lower (P = 0.007) on the treatment (unfed) area during 2 years. During the year supplemental feed was distributed on both sites, there was no difference in home range size (P = 0.87), survival (P = 0.90), or hunting success (P = 0.82) between the 2 study sites. Supplemental feeding may reduce bobwhite movements and home range size thereby enhancing survival because of less exposure to predation. However, such an effect will probably vary among years in relation to prevailing weather and native vegetation conditions. The specific mechanisms through which supplemental feeding may effect bobwhite population performance remain unknown and require additional study

Northern Bobwhite Demographic and Population Response Following an Intensive Habitat Modification to an Agricultural Landscape

Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations have been declining throughout most of their endemic range due to numerous factors (e.g., increased urbanization, predators); however, changing land-use practices have proved most detrimental to bobwhites. In parts of the southeastern USA, small-scale farming has been replaced by large-scale center-pivot irrigated fields and this has exacerbated habitat loss. Despite these trends, bobwhite populations in the Southeast have remained stable or increased on many areas employing intensive habitat management regimes, substantiating the importance of appropriate habitat management for long-term bobwhite persistence. In effort to reverse one such decline, we intensively modified a center-pivot, agriculture dominated landscape to benefit bobwhites by creating new habitat and improving existing habitat. Techniques utilized to modify this landscape were: establishment of linear habitats (field borders and buffer strips); planting longleaf pines; and management of existing habitat via prescribed burning and timber management. During 1998-2001, we monitored bobwhite (n = 498) demographics and population response following annual habitat restoration and management using radio-telemetry and fall abundance estimation (i.e., covey call-counts). Average survival during over-winter (0.4698, SE = 0.0721), breeding (0.3561, SE = 0 .0667) and annual (0.1673, SE = 0.0411) time-periods were higher than those reported for other agriculture studies and similar to those of intensively managed, “plantation” habitats. Bobwhite coveys and broods used newly developed longleaf pine, linear habitats (e.g. field borders/hedgerows), and managed woodlands. Further, nest site selection was commonly associated with these novel habitat types. As a result of the positive demographic response to habitat modification, bobwhite abundance also improved during the study. Consequently, we surmised that modification of agricultural landscapes may improve habitat quality and quantity for bobwhites and subsequently help to increase demographic rates and bobwhite abundance