ATTN: Quail Hunters
From AZGF:
Quail hunters: biologists need your wings
Quail hunters: you can assist ongoing quail management efforts by the Arizona Game and Fish Department by providing the right wing from each harvested Gambel’s quail Oct. 13-15, the opening weekend of the season.
“The wings will help assess the impacts of this year’s climate pattern on Gambel’s quail reproduction. This is the second year of the study. Given the lack of winter and spring precipitation this past year, we need good quail hunter participation again this year so we can develop strong comparative data,” says Mark Zornes, the department’s small game biologist.
Zornes says quail hunters really came through last year. “I’d like to personally thank all participants from last year. Hunters were very generous — 2,600-plus wings — and made the effort a great success.”
As in the past, the department will be conducting check stations on opening weekend of the quail season at Freeman Road near Florence, Willow Springs near Oracle, and at Punkin Center near Roosevelt Lake to gather quail harvest age and gender information.
For quail hunters who do not hunt near one of the check stations, you can help by removing only the right wing from each harvested Gambel’s quail and placing it in one of the manila wing envelopes available at any department office. Wings from multiple birds harvested can be stored in a single envelope. Wing envelopes must be labeled to be useful.
“Once you have placed the wings in the properly labeled department envelopes, you can let the wings dry without spoilage,” Zornes says.
After returning from your hunt, please drop off the wings in the labeled envelopes to any department office during regular office hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday) no later than Nov. 1. For more information, call (602) 789-3352.
I can’t help them out. I miss every shot at Quail? I can hit Dove. Quail are very fast. I may be slowing down, but not that much.
October 14th, 2006 at 3:47 pm