Subject: [Tweeters] California Quails and Clark County
Date: Apr 12 22:04:39 2015
From: Wayne Weber - contopus at telus.net


Luke and Tweeters,



As someone who occasionally birds in SW Washington, I was interested in your question.



If one looks at eBird records, it would appear that California Quail is a regular, but very rare, resident of the Ridgefield NWR. There are a few records there (but very few!) every year from 2010 to 2014, plus a few older records.



Another possible explanation is that quail occasionally fly across the Columbia River from Sauvie Island in Oregon, where they are much more numerous.



There is also a small resident population of quail in Woodland Bottoms in southernmost Cowlitz County? I?ve seen them there in the past.



However, the sighting today at Steigerwald seems to be unprecedented.



A third possibility that could account for all Clark County quail records is that all of them are birds which escaped from, or were deliberately released from, captivity.

We get occasional sightings of California Quail (and Chukars!) around Vancouver, BC, where I live, and escapes from captivity are the only possible explanation in my area.



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net







From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Luke Hanes
Sent: April-12-15 7:31 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] California Quails and Clark County



Every so often (like today) someone will post a California Quail ID in Clark County.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to them suddenly appearing.

Is it just pure luck coming across them in this county?

Or do they tend to make their way through Clark at certain seasons or due to certain circumstances?



Luke Hanes

Vancouver, WA (Felida)

lukeandharmony1997 at gmail.com