New wild quail should soon be laying first eggs in Pennsylvania in decades

Many of Pennsylvania’s new wild northern bobwhite quail are adjusting to their new home in Franklin County and officials are looking forward to seeing quail chicks this summer.

Through a partnership with the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Letterkenny Army Depot, wild quail have been reintroduced into Pennsylvania at the military site in Franklin County.

In March, 87 birds were translocated to the Army Depot in Chambersburg from Virginia, Kentucky and Florida.

“They are getting used to their new environment,” said Andrew Ward, game bird section supervisor with the Game Commission. “In the past few weeks they have broken up out of the coveys. For about a week now, we’ve been hearing males whistle. So that’s a good sign as we’re moving into breeding season and hopefully we’ll have some good nest success."

The employees at the depot have been able to observe some of the birds.

“The Letterkenny Army Depot (LEAD) Natural Resources Staff has seen bobwhite quail multiple times while doing other wildlife surveys and incidental sightings while driving through the Bobwhite Quail Focus Area (BQFA)," Matt Miller, Letterkenny natural resources manager, said through email. "The most we saw at one time was a covey of at least 10 or more flush from a road edge in early April."

They're back: Historic release of wild northern bobwhite quail happens at Letterkenny Army Depot

Wild quail were once found in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania in the mid-1800s. However they have been extirpated from Pennsylvania since the 1990s because of poor habitat conditions.

“Seeing these quail back on the Pennsylvania landscape has been really rewarding,” Miller said. "We heard our first bobwhite singing on April 25th during our American Woodcock survey, which we complete annually."

Ward said the birds were released in a timeframe that revolves around their breeding season.

“Hopefully, we have some good nest success to multiply those numbers and work our way toward our population goals and objectives."

Rearing quail is a challenge, even with the proper habitat.

“There have been mortalities. You expect that, especially with quail,” Ward said.

Quail's annual average survival, for an established population, is about 23%.

"So you expect out of say 100 individuals, that only 23 of those will survive a calendar year,” he said. "And they make up for that relatively slow survival rate with high reproduction."

Ward couldn’t release exact numbers of how many birds have died as they don’t want any conclusions to be made just one month into the program.

“The No. 1 cause of mortality in bobwhite quail in general is predation,” he said. “It’s what you would expect and it is what we see of mortalities,” he said.

Predators like hawks, foxes, bobcats and nest predators like raccoons and opossums target quail. “A lot of things will eat quail,” Ward said.

With 87 birds placed on the property this year, he said they are counting on the birds’ natural reproduction to boost the population numbers.

“Our overall goal for the translocation was to get a one-to-one, male-to-female sex ratio, as best we could. We came very close to that,” he said.

Fifteen birds, including eight females came from Fort Barfoot, an Army National Guard installation in Virginia; 50 quail, evenly split male and female, arrived from Tall Timbers, a Florida-based land trust, and the remaining 27 came from Fort Knox in Kentucky and were close to being evenly split male and female.

The birds were released in a thick grassland habitat of about 400 acres.

“We haven’t really seen them venture too far out of that,” Ward said. “Typically having those smaller home ranges is a good indicator for quality habitat and those birds having everything they need within that area. If they had to travel further for part of their daily requirements, that would expand their home range. If they are having everything that they need within that small area, then it’s typically where they are going to spend their time."

Julia Smith, Pennsylvania state coordinator for Pheasants Forever, Inc. and Quail Forever, is another partner in the project and said the habitat will continue to improve at the site.

Pollinator species are planted there to provide food sources and cover for the wildlife.

“The native warm season grasses are just now waking up,” she said about the fields. "The plants, bluestem, broomsedge, are just a couple inches tall but will take off through May and June with peak growth in July and August."

A variety of other native species of grasses will be growing throughout the summer. The hope is some of those pollinator species will attract insects for the young birds to eat.

“They really depend on a protein-rich diet and they get that from insects," Smith said. "But insects need pollinator species that they are attracted to. That’s why pollinator species are so important, they are not just providing food for our butterflies and insects. Those insects, in turn, are serving as food for young quail chicks that rely on a protein rich diet."

Miller said the crews accomplished four prescribed fires in February, March and April within the quail’s new habitat area.

“Since bobwhites are nicknamed the ‘firebird,’ it was unsurprising to see these quail utilizing burned areas almost immediately after the fire,” Miller said.

Other work included applying some pre-emergent herbicide treatments within the area, targeting non-native invasive plant species such as mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) and Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum).

“The prescribed fires and selective herbicide treatments will immensely help create quality native early-season habitats that bobwhites and a whole host of other game and non-game species depend on,” Miller said.

The quail will make nests in a bowl shape and also include a roof or dome to be more hidden from predators. The clutch sizes average about 12 eggs and they need 23 days to incubate in mid summer.

“We’re definitely excited to see signs of the breeding season starting and hopeful that we’ll have some good reproduction. We’re excited to see how this project plays out and look for opportunities to improve in the future,” Ward said.

There will be two more years of similar quail relocations to the site. Between 2019 and 2026, the Game Commission estimates it will cost about $1.5 million for the habitat work and $460,000 for the three years of translocation work. Letterkenny also plans to invest about $1.1 million in habitat work over a seven-year period.

“We’ll be taking lessons learned from our first year of translocations as well as anything we may learn throughout the coming year to make adjustments for following years,” Ward said.

Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Where are northern bobwhite quail found in Pennsylvania