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RPQRF e-Quail Newsletter (May 2025 V17N5)
This year at the 2025 EarthX conference in Dallas, I had the distinct honor of stepping onto the TV Stage to share the mission and work of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation (RPQRF). EarthX, the largest green gathering in the world, provided an incredible platform—not just for traditional conservationists, but for a truly diverse and passionate audience that went far beyond the wildlife circles I’m used to addressing.
Staff from RPQRF headed down to the Hill Country on Friday, May 25 to assist with and present at a landowner workshop at Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA). We had a good crowd of 42 people representing hill country landowners and land managers, Texas Parks & Wildlife biologists and the Texas Wildlife Association. Presentations included history, research and wildlife restoration at the WMA, chemical control of invasives and a field tour of the WMA. During the tour we looked at prescribed burn plots that included summer, winter and no fire treatments, very impressive results. There were discussions on different treatment methods to control invasive brush species and the Softball Habitat Evaluation Technique (SHET) that can help evaluate habitat quality for bobwhite quail.
Join Dr. Dale and his special guest Dr. James Martin as they dissect “Population Dynamics for Dummies.” Martin is a Professor with the University of Georgia and an avid quail hunter. Topics include “old standbys” like age ratios and more challenging integrated population modeling. Join them May 20.
In November alone, we received 7 inches of rain, but from December through the end of March, we received less than 0.15 inches of rainfall. As a result of that November rainfall, we experienced a big flush of filaree throughout the winter into the spring. Both Texas and California filaree are important food sources for quail this time of year. In the winter, quail will feed on its leaves, and right now, they’re taking advantage of the abundant seeds. This provided much-needed nutrition for quail across the landscape.
This year, the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch has paired up with a couple photographers for the Focus on Wildlife Contest! We are excited that Katy Hoskins of Sweetwater, TX chose us as the property she would like to photograph for the contest. She also recruited Emily Thornock, a RPQRR Technician here at the ranch, who has awesome photography skills, to team up with her for the contest. They will be photographing everything from critters, to plants, people at work, landscapes and anything else that catches their eye, hoping to catch that one-in-a-million shot that will land them some cash. The contest runs from February 21 – May 31, they will be working together to capture the uniqueness of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch.
The Facebook post of the month goes to a post featuring our quail rain gauge, seems everyone likes it when it rains. Second place also featured a rain theme, it was a video of a deer doing a rain dance or maybe he was just happy to see water in our little pond? Either way, we are always excited to see rain- we know what it can do for our quail population. Rain at the right time, will grow the plants quail depend on for nesting cover, to produce the seeds that sustain them through the winter, and provide food for all the insects those chicks need to help them grow.
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Our Research Ranch makes RPQRF the only conservation group in the world with its own property dedicated exclusively to understanding quail through science. It functions as the nexus of our operations and all decisions and actions on the Research Ranch are based on quail.
Our fulltime staff and team of graduate students work year-round to develop the best practices for quail management, prescribed burning methodologies, grazing procedures, predation management strategies, and pinpointing which grasses and “weeds” make ideal quail habitat.
We also trap and study as many as 5,000 quail annually and use the latest technologies – radio telemetry, GPS, thermal cameras, helicopters and even drones – to count and track quail populations. Then we share what we learn so others may follow.
Every organization has its humble beginnings. The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch was hatched around the tailgate of a pickup one evening in 2005 after a successful quail hunt. The 2005 season was a great one, and quail hunters’ spirits were high. But knowing that one didn’t have to move very far east before quail (and quail hunting) were only memories, our discussion focused on the future, and not on the laurels of our past. Indeed we should heed the lessons observed over the past 30 years from east Texas to the Atlantic Coast. Someone pondered “we need to get ahead of the curve and get serious about planning the route now, before ‘all’s quiet on the western front.”
The idea of a quail research ranch was bantered around – our own laboratory to devise and evaluate land management schemes aimed at enhancing bobwhite abundance. It was also suggested it would be great to have a ranch to demonstrate good management to other “students of quail.”
The egg was laid and after an incubation period of about two years, the dream became reality. The Foundation and its Research Ranch were established to provide a living laboratory to devise land management strategies for the benefit of quail and also as an exemplar property to demonstrate the best methodologies and techniques to other “students of quail.”
