4pP ^1^4(1.^1!! if? (5 ■ If;; ;■:■■ mm}; "ijfiiiiVi'i; ■ ^ "LI B R.AFLY OF THE UNIVLRSITY or ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. state of Illinois Henry Horner, Governor Department of Registration and Education John J. Hallilian, Director QUAIL AND PHEASANT STUDIES IN AN ORCHARD COUNTY Frank C. Eellrose, Jr. Published by Authority of the State of Illinois NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY Theodore H. Prison, Chief Biological Notes No. 13 Urbana , Illinois May, 1940 QUAIL AND PHEASANT STUDIES IN AN ORCHARD COUNTY Frank C. Bellrose, Jr.'"'" Illinois Natural History Survey In the summer of 1938, nesting studies and population estimates v/ere made of quail and pheasants in the lower third of Calhoun County, Illinois. V/hile some cruising of orchards and hay fields was undertaken to locate nests, most of the information on which these studies are based was obtained by interviewing farmers, during haying operations, in the field. Data were obtained on the number of acres of various farmi crops , dates of mowing of forage crops, and number of quail and pheasant nests found. These studies were extensive rather than intensive and were designed to shed some light on choice of nesting cover, nest- ing losses due to m.owing, and relative density of quail and pheas- ants in one of the better Illinois quail counties. It is well knov;n that farmers engaged in cutting operations often overlook the nests of upland gam.e birds, but the number of such nests overlooked in Calhoun County is thought to be less than in most other parts of the Middle V.'est because of the small fields and the scarcity of tractor-drawn mov/ers and ralces in this county. Calhoun County consists principally of a long, narrow strip of rolling land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, extending about 40 miles from north to south, with an average width of 8 miles. Underlying the surface soil is a narrow lim.estone ridge, elevated 200 to 300 feet above the rivers and flanked on either side by their alluvial bottoms. Over this limestone ridge have been de- posited m.aterials of the Quaternary Period, consisting of clays, gravel and loess, which cover the ridge to a depth of 50 to 100 feet. Form.erly heavily forested with oaks, hickories and maples, the upland area has been cleared of m.ost of its native stand and planted to apples, hay crops and grains. However, small woodlots abound, and brushy fencerows and roadsides are the rule rather than the exception. These form, an ideal interspersion of cover types. Little corn is grown, but an excellent supply of the lesser ragv^reed and other natural foods exists along fencerov/s , woodlots, roadsides, creek banks and elsewhere. -:;-The writer is indebted to Arthur S. 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Apple orchards, ranging in size from 1 acre to aoout 300 acres, abound on the rolling hills and provide more acreage of quail nesting cover than any of the othei' three types. Sines most of the orchards are on rolling tei'rain, it is coranon practice t:. retard erosion by seeding betv/een the trees with a miv.ture of red clover, blue grass and brome grass. This practice has, of course, greatly increased the quality of nesting cover in many orchards. In other orchards, where invasion of vegetation inco bai-'i areas is allcv.ad to take place, forbs and other coarse herbs predominate in the giound cover. To facilitate spraying and pick_ng of apples, fruit gi cv;ers generally cut the herbaceous \indergrov;th .in m.ldsujniiier . Luring the 1938 season, hov/ever, because of tne poor crop of apples, less than 50 per cent of the orchards were mov/ed; so poor in fact v^as the apple crop that many orchards v«ere sprayed only once. On the 70 or more farms studied in the lo\vOi thf rd of Calhoun County in 1935, hay was grown on l,c37 aores , rso clover, he most important hay crop, on 1^163 acretj alfalfa, the Soccna in irr - portance, on 249 acres; sv/eet clover, on 175 acres. V/heal gro.vn jn 39 farms , comp-rlsed 95 per cent of the aci'cage of small gi p iru- . It aggregated 1,568 acres. B0B7/HITS QUAIL Clean farming, as practiced in the Eig Pi-airie district of Illinois, has greatly restricted the range of the bobwhite quail. At present, good quail territory is found largely along the bluffs of the Illinois and Llississippi rivers and :n the hill and tight subsoil regions of southern Illinois. Calhoun County combines many of the habitat characteristics of the river bluff and the liiil countries, making it especially favorable to quail., Roadside Nes ting Roadsides aggregating approxi-'»iately 20 m.iles in length, about 25 acres in area, v/ere cut by a local tovnship comjnissiorier be- tween May 27 and July 15. Cursory observation indicated that approx- im.ately tv/o-thirds of this area, 16 acres, v/as suitable for nesting cover. Table 1 shows the relative density of quail nests in these 16 acres of cut roadside cover as compared to the density in other cover types. No data on uncut roadside cover :vt;re obtained. Of the four nests found along the mowed roadside, three Vi/ere in cL.umps of blue grass; the other was in a patch of fweet clover. Two nests were deserted because of mowing; one nest hatched. In one instance the fe.,iale returned to the nest only to have it destroyed by a predator, probably a dog. ■ orchar d Nestin g In 1958, of the 2,635 acres of grounu cover in apple orchards on the 70 Calhoun County farms visited, 1,000 acres were mowed. The numher of. acres of orchard ground cover mowed is re- ported to vary considerably from year to year; It depends on the crop of apples and the luxui'iance of the herbaceous xegeoation. Fewer acres than usual were cut in 1938. : Moreover, orchards that were mowed contained m.any scattered patches of uncut vegetation. The number of quail nests reported in the 1,000 acren of mowed nest- ing cover in orchards is shovm in table 1. Despite some disturbance by the mxwer, 11 birds i-et^/rned to their nests. Nests of two of these birds were subsequently de- stroyed by predators, but nine nests hatclied. Each ol the 11 incu- bating birds flushed ahead of the sickle bar, prompting the oreratc".'" to raise the bar sufficiently to leave an island of vegetation around the nest. Thirteen nests were destroyed by the mov.er. The outcome of one nest v/as not determined. In every Instance, quail nests in apple orchards v/ere located in the open areas betv/een the rov;s of trees . respite care- ful search, not one nest was found near the base of a tree; dlsT;ancss fromi nest to nearest tree trunk varied from. 8 to 25 feet .. v^'ith an average of 12 feet. The growth In the open areas evidently of Pert better nesting cover than the sparse vegetation underneath the tree canopy, where there is a deficiency of stinlight. Of the 25 nests found in orchards, 3 were in red cl'^/er, 18 v/ere in a m.lxture of blue grass and daisy fleabane, and 1 was on the bare ground, being roofed over v/ith dead blue-grass stems. Hayf leld Ne_s_tlri£ Red Clover. --Of the 70 Calhoun County farms visited, 50 produced red clover on a total of 1,163 acres. Seven hundred fifty acres were cut for hay; 413 were noo mowed. The 413 unmov/ed acres were com.blned for seed in late August, Data on the first cutting of red clover are given In table 2 ,ijj t The first bcbwhite quail nest was not found until Kay 27, but hatching dates given in table 2 Indicate that part of the quail population, despite a cool, rainy spring, started nesting early in May. From data presented in table 2, it is evident that a mmber of quail nests escaped destruction by hatching previous to co^iipietion of the first cutting of alfalfa and of red clover. i Eelatlve numbers of nests in rod clover as compared with those In other kinds of hay crops are given in table 1. Nest do- i structlon In all but two cases was due directly to mov/ing. There are! two records of incubating birds returning to their nGsts--doubtlessly ' because an Island of cover was left about the ncsts--to hatch the Gggs , In another instance, a nest was deserted -despite the Island of^, clover left about It . ' " I 7 Tabic 2. --Data on nowlng of rod clover and alfalfa and hatching of quail nests, Calhoun County, Illinois, 193o, Date Per Cent of Red Clover ITov/ed May 16-23 24-31 June 1-8 9-16 17-24 June 25-July 2 July 3-10 11-18 19-23 Per Cent of Alfalfa L''owod First Cutting Second Cuttin g 0.6 13.0 75.0 11.4 4.4 60.0 35.6 8.3 76.7 15.0 Number of Nests Hatc hed 3 4 2 6 3 1 1 Alfalfa. --Forty-three farms produced 249 acres of alfalfa. Forty-tv/o acres escaped early cutting, but by mid July all but 6 acres had been mowed at least once. Table 2 shov;s the first cutting extending from May 16 to June 8; the second cutting extended from June 23 to July 16. It should be noted that the peak of the first cutting v;as reached 2 v/eelcs earlier in alfalfa than in red clover. When the dates of alfalfa mowing arc compared with those for the hatching of 20 quail nests, table 2, it' is apparent that only a small percentage of nests hatched previous to completion of the first mov/ing and that fev; renesting birds would escape nest destruction by the second cutting. The number of bobwhite nests found in alfalfa, as compared to those in other types of cover, is given in table 1. Tv/enty-four nests in alfalfa v^ere destroyed or deserted as a result of mov^ing. However, there is one case of a quail returning to a cut-over nest to hatch the eggs. Sweet Clover. --In 1938, sv;cet clover was grown on 15 farms, where it totaled 175 acres. Eighty-four acres of this were cut; the remaining 91 acres were left for use as a soil conserver and soil builder. Dates of mowing of this, crop ranged from May 27 to July 2, with a mean of June 15. Of the tv\fo nests discovered in this cover, both v/ere destroyed by mowing. A small percentage of quail nests reached the hatching stage before the peak of cutting of sv>feet clover in mid June . 8 Grain Field Nesting ViTieat was grown on 1,368 acres of the farms studied in Calhoun County in 1938. Infonnation was obtained on 1,072 of t.hei^e acres cut by binders and combines. Despite cruising by the author in one wheat field and the vigilance of many farmers, only tv/o quail nests v/ere located in this cover type, for a density of one nest in 551 acres. In both instances the incubating birds returned to their nests in the stubble. One nest hatched about June 30; the other v/as still being incubated on July 18. The first nest v/as situated in a wheat field in which red clover had been sowed; the clover furnished added nesting cover. The second nest was partly under a shock of wheat bundles. From the low nesting density in v/heat fields, it appears that small grains are little utilized for nesting purposes by bob- vifhites . This fact is most unfortunate, inasmuch as small grains offer safer nesting sites than do hay fields. In Calhoun County, in 1938, the first wheat fields were not cut until June 18, the peak not being reached until June 27. The hatching data presented in table 2 indicate that about half of the quail nests hatched previou.s to the first activity of the reaper. Miscellaneous Nesting Cover In this category are placed those nesting cover types that are small and restricted in habitat and that occur in waste corners of fields, pastures and v/oodlots . One nest was found on June 2 among the stubble of a field that had been in corn the previous year. Situated in a small clump of grass ( Hordeum sp.) and smartweeds ( Polygonum sp.), it was destroyed by plowing. Raspberry and dewberry patches harbored six nests. In each instance, however, these nests were among the blue grass grov/ing with the briers. Three of the nests were destroyed by predators, two hatched, and the outcome of one was not determined. Tv>fo nests were found in pastures. Both were located in a mixture of blue grass and daisy f leabane . Although the roof of one nest was rapioved in mowing, the female returned to incubate, and the eggs hatched. The other nest was destroyed by crows. Nest Loss Nest loss of quail was greatest in alfalfa, v/here only a small percentage of nests escaped by hatching before the mower de- stroyed them. Since, of all crops, alfalfa showed the highest nest density and highest nest mortality, this crop form.ed an important hazard to the quail of Calhoim County. Red clover v/as not nearly so hazardous a nesting cover as alfalfa.. Fewer birds v/ere attracted to red clover. Eecsuse c^ the later Kov/lng of this crop, early nests escaped aestmction, and, furthermore, approximately 30 per cent of this' crop v