Hunt for scarce bobwhites may be off in New Jersey
Saturday, December 26, 2009
By Brian T. Murray
The Star-Ledger
Coveys of quail were once more common than the hounds and hunters who pursued them through the brushy fields of New Jersey.
On summer nights, their calls would pierce the air with a whistling, drawn-out screech of "bob-white, bob-bob-white," a song that gave the small, quirky, chicken-like birds the name of northern bobwhite.
"When I was 10 years old, I used to hear them as my grandfather and I sat on the front porch on a glider, one of those big old metal porch swings," said Joe Matter, 59, who grew up hunting quail in the Thorofare section of Gloucester County. "Those were the days of hunting with side-by-sides (shotguns) and Woolrich shirts. We also had more than just a few dogs under foot. It was nothing to kick up 20 to 50 coveys of quail in a day, with 20 to 25 birds in each covey."
Matter said these days when he walks through the fields he's lucky to kick up one flapping, fluttering covey of a half-dozen quail.
Although the bobwhite faces extinction throughout the eastern and southeastern United States, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife released a report this month concluding, "New Jersey's declines are among the most precipitous recorded."
Audubon, the national bird conservation group, listed the quail last year as the number one native avian species in decline, estimating 5.5 million bobwhite remain in the nation, where they numbered 31 million just 40 years ago.
Paul Castelli, a state research biologist, recently unveiled a new state bobwhite action plan that outlined a need to accelerate and improve bobwhite habitat restoration. But the plan also recommended the unthinkable in South Jersey Ð an indefinite suspension of the region's 300-year-old tradition of wild quail hunting.
Endorsed by the game council, but still subject to a year of public hearings, the plan proposes an end to wild quail pursuits by 2011 in areas south of where Route 33 cuts through Monmouth and Mercer counties.
"That is where our wild bobwhite are. About 800,000 acres of suitable habitat remains there, which is about 28 percent of the entire land-mass below Route 33. Right now, only 18 percent of that region is believed to be occupied by wild bobwhite," Castelli said.
A dozen private clubs will be free to continue hunting pen-raised bobwhite they stock annually on private land, and other hunters may pursue birds the state stocks at two wildlife management areas. But to ease pressure on wild coveys, the bobwhite season is to be closed elsewhere.
"This is something we have to do. I don't want my grandchildren relegated to learning about bobwhite from pictures in a book," said Matter, who also chairs the New Jersey Quail Project, a conservation group.
The slow, yet certain disappearance of wild quail began a century ago. In New Jersey, there are about 3,700 of the wild, native birds left, primarily in pockets of South Jersey.
"It's a habitat issue. Of course it's a game bird, and people hunt them, but there's not enough hunting pressure to cause the type of decline in quail we see," said Beth Ciuzio of New Jersey Audubon. "The issue is a lack of what we call early successional habitat."
The birds had thrived on native warm-season grasses, such as switchgrass, bluestem, Indian grass and broomsedge Ð a once-common, bunchy, mosaic of vegetation that offered great nesting areas and allowed room for other flowers and weeds that provided food by attracting bugs and dropping seeds. It also gave quail excellent winter cover to hide from predators, but no more.
Increasing urbanization, suburban sprawl and farming practices involving row crops and pesticides have left bobwhite exposed and vulnerable.
"Current trends toward cleaner farming, larger plot sizes and conversion to non-native grasses or crowded pine stands, and conversion to suburbia have reduced the amount of habitat available to bobwhite nesting and escape cover," said Christopher Williams, a University of Delaware professor who has studied bobwhite nationwide, including South Jersey.
"For states such as New Jersey, which is the most developed state in the union, these habitat conversions are especially drastic. Consequently, for at least half a century, bobwhite numbers have followed a downward trend throughout the bird's range," he said.
Many groups, from New Jersey Quail Project and New Jersey Audubon to South Jersey Quail Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society and several government agencies have been launching habitat restoration projects, with some successes. But Castelli said radio tracking studies on South Jersey quail over the past few years show the birds still are suffering high mortality rates.
"The annual adult survival rate was 8.6 percent, meaning 91.4 percent of the adult birds that were around in the spring didn't survive the year," he said.
Hawks, which faced extinction 30 years ago until pesticide bans restored their numbers, killed 43.5 percent of the studied quail and domestic cats killed another 10.1 percent. Other mammals, such as the state's ever increasing coyote population and foxes, took down 21.7 percent.
Hunters accounted for only 2.9 percent, an amount biologists said they would have considered insignificant, until now
Coveys of quail were once more common than the hounds and hunters who pursued them through the brushy fields of New Jersey.
On summer nights, their calls would pierce the air with a whistling, drawn-out screech of "bob-white, bob-bob-white," a song that gave the small, quirky, chicken-like birds the name of northern bobwhite.
"When I was 10 years old, I used to hear them as my grandfather and I sat on the front porch on a glider, one of those big old metal porch swings," said Joe Matter, 59, who grew up hunting quail in the Thorofare section of Gloucester County. "Those were the days of hunting with side-by-sides (shotguns) and Woolrich shirts. We also had more than just a few dogs under foot. It was nothing to kick up 20 to 50 coveys of quail in a day, with 20 to 25 birds in each covey."
Matter said these days when he walks through the fields he's lucky to kick up one flapping, fluttering covey of a half-dozen quail.
Although the bobwhite faces extinction throughout the eastern and southeastern United States, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife released a report this month concluding, "New Jersey's declines are among the most precipitous recorded."
Audubon, the national bird conservation group, listed the quail last year as the number one native avian species in decline, estimating 5.5 million bobwhite remain in the nation, where they numbered 31 million just 40 years ago.
Paul Castelli, a state research biologist, recently unveiled a new state bobwhite action plan that outlined a need to accelerate and improve bobwhite habitat restoration. But the plan also recommended the unthinkable in South Jersey Ð an indefinite suspension of the region's 300-year-old tradition of wild quail hunting.
Endorsed by the game council, but still subject to a year of public hearings, the plan proposes an end to wild quail pursuits by 2011 in areas south of where Route 33 cuts through Monmouth and Mercer counties.
"That is where our wild bobwhite are. About 800,000 acres of suitable habitat remains there, which is about 28 percent of the entire land-mass below Route 33. Right now, only 18 percent of that region is believed to be occupied by wild bobwhite," Castelli said.
A dozen private clubs will be free to continue hunting pen-raised bobwhite they stock annually on private land, and other hunters may pursue birds the state stocks at two wildlife management areas. But to ease pressure on wild coveys, the bobwhite season is to be closed elsewhere.
"This is something we have to do. I don't want my grandchildren relegated to learning about bobwhite from pictures in a book," said Matter, who also chairs the New Jersey Quail Project, a conservation group.
The slow, yet certain disappearance of wild quail began a century ago. In New Jersey, there are about 3,700 of the wild, native birds left, primarily in pockets of South Jersey.
"It's a habitat issue. Of course it's a game bird, and people hunt them, but there's not enough hunting pressure to cause the type of decline in quail we see," said Beth Ciuzio of New Jersey Audubon. "The issue is a lack of what we call early successional habitat."
The birds had thrived on native warm-season grasses, such as switchgrass, bluestem, Indian grass and broomsedge Ð a once-common, bunchy, mosaic of vegetation that offered great nesting areas and allowed room for other flowers and weeds that provided food by attracting bugs and dropping seeds. It also gave quail excellent winter cover to hide from predators, but no more.
Increasing urbanization, suburban sprawl and farming practices involving row crops and pesticides have left bobwhite exposed and vulnerable.
"Current trends toward cleaner farming, larger plot sizes and conversion to non-native grasses or crowded pine stands, and conversion to suburbia have reduced the amount of habitat available to bobwhite nesting and escape cover," said Christopher Williams, a University of Delaware professor who has studied bobwhite nationwide, including South Jersey.
"For states such as New Jersey, which is the most developed state in the union, these habitat conversions are especially drastic. Consequently, for at least half a century, bobwhite numbers have followed a downward trend throughout the bird's range," he said.
Many groups, from New Jersey Quail Project and New Jersey Audubon to South Jersey Quail Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society and several government agencies have been launching habitat restoration projects, with some successes. But Castelli said radio tracking studies on South Jersey quail over the past few years show the birds still are suffering high mortality rates.
"The annual adult survival rate was 8.6 percent, meaning 91.4 percent of the adult birds that were around in the spring didn't survive the year," he said.
Hawks, which faced extinction 30 years ago until pesticide bans restored their numbers, killed 43.5 percent of the studied quail and domestic cats killed another 10.1 percent. Other mammals, such as the state's ever increasing coyote population and foxes, took down 21.7 percent.
Hunters accounted for only 2.9 percent, an amount biologists said they would have considered insignificant, until now.
©2009 Gloucester County Times
© 2009 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
By Brian T. Murray
The Star-Ledger
Coveys of quail were once more common than the hounds and hunters who pursued them through the brushy fields of New Jersey.
On summer nights, their calls would pierce the air with a whistling, drawn-out screech of "bob-white, bob-bob-white," a song that gave the small, quirky, chicken-like birds the name of northern bobwhite.
"When I was 10 years old, I used to hear them as my grandfather and I sat on the front porch on a glider, one of those big old metal porch swings," said Joe Matter, 59, who grew up hunting quail in the Thorofare section of Gloucester County. "Those were the days of hunting with side-by-sides (shotguns) and Woolrich shirts. We also had more than just a few dogs under foot. It was nothing to kick up 20 to 50 coveys of quail in a day, with 20 to 25 birds in each covey."
Matter said these days when he walks through the fields he's lucky to kick up one flapping, fluttering covey of a half-dozen quail.
Although the bobwhite faces extinction throughout the eastern and southeastern United States, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife released a report this month concluding, "New Jersey's declines are among the most precipitous recorded."
Audubon, the national bird conservation group, listed the quail last year as the number one native avian species in decline, estimating 5.5 million bobwhite remain in the nation, where they numbered 31 million just 40 years ago.
Paul Castelli, a state research biologist, recently unveiled a new state bobwhite action plan that outlined a need to accelerate and improve bobwhite habitat restoration. But the plan also recommended the unthinkable in South Jersey Ð an indefinite suspension of the region's 300-year-old tradition of wild quail hunting.
Endorsed by the game council, but still subject to a year of public hearings, the plan proposes an end to wild quail pursuits by 2011 in areas south of where Route 33 cuts through Monmouth and Mercer counties.
"That is where our wild bobwhite are. About 800,000 acres of suitable habitat remains there, which is about 28 percent of the entire land-mass below Route 33. Right now, only 18 percent of that region is believed to be occupied by wild bobwhite," Castelli said.
A dozen private clubs will be free to continue hunting pen-raised bobwhite they stock annually on private land, and other hunters may pursue birds the state stocks at two wildlife management areas. But to ease pressure on wild coveys, the bobwhite season is to be closed elsewhere.
"This is something we have to do. I don't want my grandchildren relegated to learning about bobwhite from pictures in a book," said Matter, who also chairs the New Jersey Quail Project, a conservation group.
The slow, yet certain disappearance of wild quail began a century ago. In New Jersey, there are about 3,700 of the wild, native birds left, primarily in pockets of South Jersey.
"It's a habitat issue. Of course it's a game bird, and people hunt them, but there's not enough hunting pressure to cause the type of decline in quail we see," said Beth Ciuzio of New Jersey Audubon. "The issue is a lack of what we call early successional habitat."
The birds had thrived on native warm-season grasses, such as switchgrass, bluestem, Indian grass and broomsedge Ð a once-common, bunchy, mosaic of vegetation that offered great nesting areas and allowed room for other flowers and weeds that provided food by attracting bugs and dropping seeds. It also gave quail excellent winter cover to hide from predators, but no more.
Increasing urbanization, suburban sprawl and farming practices involving row crops and pesticides have left bobwhite exposed and vulnerable.
"Current trends toward cleaner farming, larger plot sizes and conversion to non-native grasses or crowded pine stands, and conversion to suburbia have reduced the amount of habitat available to bobwhite nesting and escape cover," said Christopher Williams, a University of Delaware professor who has studied bobwhite nationwide, including South Jersey.
"For states such as New Jersey, which is the most developed state in the union, these habitat conversions are especially drastic. Consequently, for at least half a century, bobwhite numbers have followed a downward trend throughout the bird's range," he said.
Many groups, from New Jersey Quail Project and New Jersey Audubon to South Jersey Quail Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society and several government agencies have been launching habitat restoration projects, with some successes. But Castelli said radio tracking studies on South Jersey quail over the past few years show the birds still are suffering high mortality rates.
"The annual adult survival rate was 8.6 percent, meaning 91.4 percent of the adult birds that were around in the spring didn't survive the year," he said.
Hawks, which faced extinction 30 years ago until pesticide bans restored their numbers, killed 43.5 percent of the studied quail and domestic cats killed another 10.1 percent. Other mammals, such as the state's ever increasing coyote population and foxes, took down 21.7 percent.
Hunters accounted for only 2.9 percent, an amount biologists said they would have considered insignificant, until now
Coveys of quail were once more common than the hounds and hunters who pursued them through the brushy fields of New Jersey.
On summer nights, their calls would pierce the air with a whistling, drawn-out screech of "bob-white, bob-bob-white," a song that gave the small, quirky, chicken-like birds the name of northern bobwhite.
"When I was 10 years old, I used to hear them as my grandfather and I sat on the front porch on a glider, one of those big old metal porch swings," said Joe Matter, 59, who grew up hunting quail in the Thorofare section of Gloucester County. "Those were the days of hunting with side-by-sides (shotguns) and Woolrich shirts. We also had more than just a few dogs under foot. It was nothing to kick up 20 to 50 coveys of quail in a day, with 20 to 25 birds in each covey."
Matter said these days when he walks through the fields he's lucky to kick up one flapping, fluttering covey of a half-dozen quail.
Although the bobwhite faces extinction throughout the eastern and southeastern United States, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife released a report this month concluding, "New Jersey's declines are among the most precipitous recorded."
Audubon, the national bird conservation group, listed the quail last year as the number one native avian species in decline, estimating 5.5 million bobwhite remain in the nation, where they numbered 31 million just 40 years ago.
Paul Castelli, a state research biologist, recently unveiled a new state bobwhite action plan that outlined a need to accelerate and improve bobwhite habitat restoration. But the plan also recommended the unthinkable in South Jersey Ð an indefinite suspension of the region's 300-year-old tradition of wild quail hunting.
Endorsed by the game council, but still subject to a year of public hearings, the plan proposes an end to wild quail pursuits by 2011 in areas south of where Route 33 cuts through Monmouth and Mercer counties.
"That is where our wild bobwhite are. About 800,000 acres of suitable habitat remains there, which is about 28 percent of the entire land-mass below Route 33. Right now, only 18 percent of that region is believed to be occupied by wild bobwhite," Castelli said.
A dozen private clubs will be free to continue hunting pen-raised bobwhite they stock annually on private land, and other hunters may pursue birds the state stocks at two wildlife management areas. But to ease pressure on wild coveys, the bobwhite season is to be closed elsewhere.
"This is something we have to do. I don't want my grandchildren relegated to learning about bobwhite from pictures in a book," said Matter, who also chairs the New Jersey Quail Project, a conservation group.
The slow, yet certain disappearance of wild quail began a century ago. In New Jersey, there are about 3,700 of the wild, native birds left, primarily in pockets of South Jersey.
"It's a habitat issue. Of course it's a game bird, and people hunt them, but there's not enough hunting pressure to cause the type of decline in quail we see," said Beth Ciuzio of New Jersey Audubon. "The issue is a lack of what we call early successional habitat."
The birds had thrived on native warm-season grasses, such as switchgrass, bluestem, Indian grass and broomsedge Ð a once-common, bunchy, mosaic of vegetation that offered great nesting areas and allowed room for other flowers and weeds that provided food by attracting bugs and dropping seeds. It also gave quail excellent winter cover to hide from predators, but no more.
Increasing urbanization, suburban sprawl and farming practices involving row crops and pesticides have left bobwhite exposed and vulnerable.
"Current trends toward cleaner farming, larger plot sizes and conversion to non-native grasses or crowded pine stands, and conversion to suburbia have reduced the amount of habitat available to bobwhite nesting and escape cover," said Christopher Williams, a University of Delaware professor who has studied bobwhite nationwide, including South Jersey.
"For states such as New Jersey, which is the most developed state in the union, these habitat conversions are especially drastic. Consequently, for at least half a century, bobwhite numbers have followed a downward trend throughout the bird's range," he said.
Many groups, from New Jersey Quail Project and New Jersey Audubon to South Jersey Quail Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society and several government agencies have been launching habitat restoration projects, with some successes. But Castelli said radio tracking studies on South Jersey quail over the past few years show the birds still are suffering high mortality rates.
"The annual adult survival rate was 8.6 percent, meaning 91.4 percent of the adult birds that were around in the spring didn't survive the year," he said.
Hawks, which faced extinction 30 years ago until pesticide bans restored their numbers, killed 43.5 percent of the studied quail and domestic cats killed another 10.1 percent. Other mammals, such as the state's ever increasing coyote population and foxes, took down 21.7 percent.
Hunters accounted for only 2.9 percent, an amount biologists said they would have considered insignificant, until now.
©2009 Gloucester County Times
© 2009 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
The cats have pretty much gone.
