Pa wild quail plan

Thanks for the link! The last wild quail I saw in Pa. were in Berks County near Kutztown. I was collecting seed and witnessed two different coveys working a hedgerow.The next year I was pattering a big buck and saw one of the coveys again. I haven't seen any since!
 
How long ago was that when you saw those quail? I've never seen a wild quail and the last wild pheasant I saw was in the early 80's in Adams county (except the some birds in the WPRA).

After looking over the quail plan it seems that I live right in the middle of one of the high priority areas. I look forward to seeing the plan put into action.
 
Another Pennsylvania project in the right direction. Good luck! :thumbsup:
 
bauerline said:
How long ago was that when you saw those quail? I've never seen a wild quail and the last wild pheasant I saw was in the early 80's in Adams county (except the some birds in the WPRA).

After looking over the quail plan it seems that I live right in the middle of one of the high priority areas. I look forward to seeing the plan put into action.
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I saw those quail in the mid 90's,there are still some pockets of wild quail in the Southwest part of the state.I own some property in Bradford County and some of the locals swear there are wild quail nearby,but I have never flushed any.We did hear some,but I am not sure if they were "wild".

There is and always have been some pockets of "wild "pheasants in Pa..Despite what you read there are still some areas where you can hunt a wild population.It takes a herculean effort to find these areas and they are very guarded and you can understand why.
 
1pheas4 said:
Another Pennsylvania project in the right direction. Good luck! :thumbsup:
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Yes, you are correct! Pa. Sportsmen are very lucky to have men like Mr. Jay Delaney working to improve all small game hunting and keep the hunting tradition alive in Pa.!
 
While I applaud any and all efforts to protect and expand quail and pheasant populations anywhere in any state, I am always amazed that we have to duplicate remedial studies of "appropriate habitat needs", survey local populations,( here's a clue, THERE AREN'T ANY, or at least to few to matter), all these sorts of studies have been done repetetively in multiple states, habitat requirements are well established, and have been known for decades. You can find all you need on an internet search. All the time consumming and costly foreplay seems redundant and a waste. Go put some shovels in the ground and create first succession habitat, restore non sod forming grasses,trim back the mature forests to create edge. It's a chainsaw, and fire issue, no mystery.When your 40 years in and making progress, you might have a huntable population, but Pa. is never going to be a "quail" state, it never was, they were bonus birds for pheasant hunters back in the 60's and 70's. It took 40 years to get down this far, it's a long road back to mediocrity.Good news is your pheasant management will support your quail management and vis-versa. I hope I'm wrong and it goes quicker, but that's how it is here in Missouri, once a quail state with a harvest of 2 to 4 million birds a year, over many years in a row. Now 200,000 with about 20,000 quail hunters total.
 
I have not been able to read through all of the plan..however from what I have read so far I am very excited! The Pennsylvania Game Commission is hands down one of the best wildlife agencies in the nation! The future of small game hunting in Pa gets brighter and brighter every day!
 
Sorry, I didn't see your post at first.

I think it may be able to work for quail since they don't need as much of a large area like pheasants. The important thing would be to keep contact with people at a minimum. But I guess we'll never know for sure until it is tried.
 
Think about it, over just the last ten years the Game Dept alone has released well over a million pen raised birds "pheasants". Some of these birds were released into areas that are now WPRA's. The results were very conclusive, the pen raised birds had very little chance of establishing a wild population, even in ideal habitat conditions. Now since the WPRA's have been established and no pen raised birds released there, and JUST 300 WILD BIRDS were released we are seeing wild populations again. Now if you could start to release Wild BIRDS in other areas of the state, like private gun clubs do, well I think it might really take off. Of course the PGC would have to be on board with this and some of the release laws changed. I think this is closer to what might have happened when bird populations were first established.

We have been following up on leads for on wild quail ,but so far have come up empty, I think some sort of Wild Captive Breeding Program will have to implemented. The plan calls for a minimum of 50 birds to be released at a time. This is going to be very hard, if not impossible from a Pa. source.
 
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Quail will find a tough go...they are more fragile in constitution, more subject to habitat changes in their environment re food and brood and respond following downturns much, much slower than does the pheasant.
One is also reaching a historical population boundary with quail...even the so-termed by some, Pennsylvania mountain quail.
That said, good luck to them.
But, better luck, to the native and wider spread native species of Pa.

One must also be careful in sighting "wild" quail...releases happen.
They exist, I agree, as they do in Ohio but I try to not confuse wild with the survival of a released species.
 
It's going to be a tough go for sure, one of the goals calls for determining the current distribution, population status, and trends of northern bobwhite in PA and protecting any residual wild populations. To accomplish this goal, multiple biological and hunter/landowner surveys will need to be conducted. The number of propagated bobwhite quail being released in the state need to be determined. New genetic techniques will be used to help in determining if existing northern bobwhite quail in PA are wild or pen-reared and released birds. Museum specimens will be used to determine the genetics of northern bobwhites in PA to help in determining the subspecies adapted to PA. It's a long road for sure!
 
You're right about how long and difficult the plan details are. It is going to be tough to find the wild quail populations in the state. I'm curious how many are out there. I talked to a guy from the PGC at the flushing survey about the quail plan. He said one of the areas they are looking at is the Gettysburg Battlefield but it will be years until any birds are released if it happens at all. It would be nice to see some wild quail in the area sometime.
 
The Gettysburg area has been mentioned, interestingly there is some mention of quail there during the Civil War. It would be neat to bring them back to that area , even if for only historic reasons.

There are a couple of areas that show a lot of promise, but it is on private property, so we have to gain permission.

Wouldn't it be neat to be involved in a Wild Captive Breeding Program? I think the PGC is going to need a lot of help with this! "hint" ;)
 
It would be nice to get involved with something like the quail program. Since Gettysburg is close to home that might be something to check out if it happens in that area
 
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What's interesting is according to the information in the plan,every County in Pa. once had Northern Bobwhite Quail. It's hard to imagine places like Potter County being home to wild quail, but I'm sure it didn't look like it does now, mostly forested.

A few years ago while doing research for wild pheasant in Bradford County, I was looking at old News Paper articles for the forecast for the upcoming hunting seasons of those years, I was shocked to see the forecast also included quail. The report listed quail as fair to good depending on what part of the County you were going to hunt! Things sure have changed!
 
I have never seen or heard a wild quail. The last wild pheasant I saw (except for recent WPRA birds) was back in the mid 80's at my grandparent's house. It would be nice to see both of them in parts of Pa.

I think there are a few reasons Gettysburg has been mentioned. It's in the southern most portion of the state and just above the Md. line, so the winter weather isn't as bad as the northern part of the state. We do get our share of snow down here but it doesn't hang around as long. Also, the park has been removing a large amount of older trees to get the land to look like it did during the Civil War. I also remember reading somewhere that President Eisenhower would hunt quail and pheasant at his farm in Gettysburg. It would be nice to hear the call of the Bobwhite in Pa.
 
Man....you missed out on something spectacular! The pheasant hunting was second to none, and you never knew when you were going to bump into a covey of quail, this was in the early 70's.

There are still wild pheasants in Pa. not associated with the WPRA's, and in more area's of the state than most people think. That is one of the reasons I am so optimistic about the future.

I agree, I would love to hear ole Bobwhite sing again in Pa..
 
FLDBRED said:
... It's hard to imagine places like Potter County being home to wild quail, but I'm sure it didn't look like it does now, mostly forested.
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That's why some term them mountain quail....much as they labeled brook trout as hemlock trout.

Odds are, even in the late 1800s timber cutting and onward, there were comparably few....I also wonder about any genetic superiority to Pa. conditions....not sure that existence leads to a long term habitation guarantee.
If you think about it...who would have been counting quail populations then....basically a lot of anecdotal evidence in the form of some geezer memories, second-hand exaggerrations, interpretaion of questionable data and, guesses....often par for the course in the 1800s.

Creating or improving quail populations in Pennsylvania thru dollars and habitat creation is one thing....capturing and fostering of some wild mountain quail genetics for better hopes of success, another.

But, the ruffed grouse of the Apps is a different critter in many ways than that found in the Upper Great Lakes, despite what many believe, so I understand the thinking and the hope...the problem tho may be in neither the time nor the money but rather in the search for a quail with similarities to Mr. Bigfoot.
 
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