Wed, 8 Jan 1997, S. Downes writes:

<<
This strikes up a point that has been bothering me ever since last june.
When we returned from our vacation east of the mountains I posted that I
had seen scaled quail at the beginning of Umptanum RD. near Wenas area.
This struck me as odd and while we are exploring the thread of "countable
or wild" populations I was wondering if the general assumption that any
scaled quail seen in Washington now is a recent escapee. I realize that
there was a small introduced population near the frenchmans coulee region
many years ago but assume that that group has been expirated (no reports
for many years). Any ideas on this would help.
>>

Back in October, 1991 (I think), I recall observing a single Scaled Quail
while conducting some environmental survey work for a Seattle area
environmental consulting firm, in the Crab Creek / Priest Rapids area, Grant
County. This was back when hardcore seagoing days dominated my intermittant
and tenuous Seattle homelife, and Washington birds on land were mostly ones
of casual notice, rather than my really paying attention to listing or
anything much of relevance in these regards. I can't even remember the
*exact* location, much to my dismay now.

Presently, and in a much more enlightened state of consciousness about
Washington birdlife, I have periodic recurring flashback visions (more like
nightmares) to that October day, and the Scaled Quail incident along the side
of the road, and I think about it every time I'm over there but I still can't
seem to pinpoint the exact spot. It was 'somewhere' along State Route 243,
at the base of Sentinel Bluffs, 3 or 4 miles south of Beverly and the Crab
Creek bridge comes to mind (not necessarily correct). All I remember was
that shortly after we pulled back out on the highway from 'somewhere' along
there, turning north, we saw the Scaled Quail running around on the shoulder.
We pulled over, stopped and watched it for a bit until it ran off into
sage/scrub on the east side of the road. The others in my party had never
seen one before, and I hadn't seen one for many many years and only in the
lower desert Southwest. Since this was my first trip EVER to Washington east
of the Cascades, I do recall not really tagging any special significance to
the sighting, apart from noting the novelty of the situation, based on a
pre-trip quick perusal of an earlier edition of Whal & Paulson's Guide to
Bird Finding in Washington, for the Lower Crab Creek area, where Scaled Quail
was listed as an introduced species specifically to this area by the game
department. Afterall, in my misguided wisdom of logic, the species was a
non-native introduction, hence, I wasn't surprised or impressed although I
felt rather lucky since the notation suggested that it was rare.

I gather from S. Downes posting, there may have not been any recent sightings
from that area, maybe in the last decade or more. I'm just curious but but
would like to see some further comment and discussion in regards to the
current known or suspected status of Scaled Quail presently in Washington.
Thanks.

I've been following *tweeters* via the digest postings at the *tweeters
website* from my temporary office in La Jolla, CA for the past few months. I
am back in Seattle for a few weeks but continue to find the website access
more convenient and this is my first posting to *tweeters* via that
convenient avenue of access. Thanks Dan Victor, John Siler, et.al. for a
great webpage, links, and service! :-))

Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue, WA