Subject: Fw: Mountain Quail in Pend Oreille County?
Date: Feb 11 12:19:18 2004
From: Matthew Moskwik - mpmoskwik at hotmail.com



----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Moskwik
To: inland-nw-birders at uidaho.edu
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 12:14 PM
Subject: Mountain Quail in Pend Oreille County


Inlanders,

About two years ago (in June of 2002), I reported hearing the breeding call of Mountain Quail in Pend Oreille County. The location was about 1 mile north of where Tacoma Creek Road leaves Highway 20 (just north of Cusick). The bird that I heard calling was on a slope west of the highway. Yesterday, I spoke with a graduate student at EWU, who stated that he saw a pair of Mountain Quail (his description matched that of a Mountain and not a California) in this area (along the highway) back in the spring/summer of 1997. Also, a member of the Spokane Audubon Society, who frequently drove the logging roads in the county back in the 80's said that he occasionally would see Mountain Quail (his description also matched). California Quail are rarely encountered in this county, so perhaps there wouldn't be any competitive pressure from them. This may allow a small population of Mountain Quail to exist in the hills surrounding the Pend Oreille River (an area which is almost never birded). So the next question to ask would be: is the population introduced or native? Any comments?

Matthew Moskwik
Cheney, WA
mpmoskwik at hotmail.com