New (old) way to control ticks

[baronrenfrew]

"In the battle to win back parks and other natural areas now infested with disease-carrying ticks, some towns on Long Island (New York) are increasingly turning to an unlikely ally: the bobwhite quail."



https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/anima ... ight-ticks

[ross]

Possum works too & cats don't bother them . Speaking of cats another in the trap this AM .

[JP*]

I would love to see a Bobwhite Quail program on the same scale as the Wild Turkey program.

I saw a covey of Hungarian Partridge one winter 20 years ago..but never a Bobwhite Quail.

[kenya]

Very interesting. I just wonder how you can get the quail to stick around.

[Brian]

release a few hundred into a nice area with lots of wild food, feed them until they are established. Pray for short, warm winters and you might get an established community. It would be nice to hear them in the wild. I found this on youtube

I wonder if it is legal to release bobwhite quail? Anyone know?

[LongCrow]

You can get it all here but all this fun comes at a price. Sure would be nice to hear them in the wild again.
https://gamebirdfarm.net/canada/products.php?cat=57

[baronrenfrew]

Hmmm..I wonder if that works for Hungarian Partridge? There's still a few coveys around here.
I let an adult pair of partridge go once. They hung around until the oats was harvested. I flushed them a few times that summer. They never did fly well.

[baronrenfrew]

There's a dozen reasons why birds have declined. It used to be small fields with stone fences in between. One farmer had two field crops then a hay field. Everyone removed the stone fences and now its all big fields. When you cut hay the birds ran into the oats. Harvest the oats they ran in the hay. Now its one big field and you harvest and there's nowhere to hide. Cornfields had weeds, farmers would till through the crop at a certain at a certain height. Now its all roundup fields with no weeds.
Cedar rail fences would zig zag over rocky ground where you couldn't dig posts, that left lots of "edge" areas.
The planting of "bunch" grasses vs single stem grasses is also reported to have an impact on quail.

[Brebis]

Yes Baronrenfrew, the agricultural landscape is far different now. Around here it's now mostly cultivated crops of corn/wheat/soybeans and the fields are now massive and cultivated to the roads and fence rows. No more safe habitats for diverse wildlife...

[Killerbunny]

One of the problems we found at the Game Conservancy was the lack of hedgerows in relation to partridge (Huns and Red legs). They hunker in the hedges to nest. If there are many hedgerows when a predator comes along he has several choices to make - straight, right or left. If there is only straight on he has a better chance of scooping a meal. Happily hedgerows are being reinstated in Europe, let's hope it doesn't take us 50 yrs to catch up.