Eggs

A few weeks ago I was doing vegetation surveys at the Chicasaw Village site on the Natchez Trace just north of Tupelo. In one of the plots we flushed a Bobwhite quail and found her nest. This was pretty exciting. This site was the only one (of the four sites we are on) that has any quail, and it has a lot. Bobwhite quail populations have dropped a great deal in the last thirty years or so, and the notion that it might be brought back up to a huntable level is an important part of the effort to convince landowners to participate in prairie habitat restoration. Anyway, this nest had fifteen eggs. They have probably hatched by now. If I had time, I would go see how they are doing. Here is a shot of where the nest is, well-hidden, under a clump of grama grass.