Flying High

It’s always cool to hear about a master plan coming together and working as it should, particularly one that is built around an ambitious wildlife conservation project aimed at restoring something really old to the way it was many moons ago.

Shift to Polk County in southeast Texas. It’s home to Russell Gordy’s Rock Creek Ranch — , 9,000 acres of upland pine savannah near Onalaska.

The ranch is ground zero for the Tall Timbers Western Pineywoods Quail Program. Though still in its infancy stages, the program is showing positive results thus far. Experts are saying it’s on track to becoming the most successful of many quail translocation projects that have been attempted over the years in the Lone Star State.

Just so you know, bobwhite quail were once feathered fixtures in rural East Texas. Populations slowly dwindled as land use practices changed from row cropping to maximizing timber, cattle and hay production.

Gordy is a successful Houston businessman with a passion for the past. He grew up hunting quail in Louisiana and developed love for land, the outdoors and conservation along the way — passions he passed on to his two sons, Garrett and Shaun.

There is a great story behind the early success of the northern bobwhite translocation project underway at Rock Creek, one that is sure to grab the attention of quail managers everywhere. The effort is founded on a friendship established several years ago between Brad Kubecka and Garrett Gordy. Moreover, the mutual love the two men share for the dapper little game birds and their signature trills.

Kubecka, 29, is a longtime student of quail and quail management. A graduate with a Master’s degree from Texas A&M-Kingsville and a Ph.D at the University of Georgia, Kubecka is the Western Gamebird Director for Tall Timbers, an internationally recognized wildlife research station based in Florida. The outfit has more than 60 years of experience studying fire-adapted ecosystems and advocating for the use of prescribed fire to benefit quail, wild turkey and other wildlife habitat while reducing wildfire risks.

Tall Timbers also has a rich history of success when it comes to restoring wild quail populations on long-standing project areas throughout the southeastern U.S., using base management methods learned and refined through decades of experience in different ecoregions. To date, the organization has moved about 8,000 wild quail and helped create around 100,000 acres of new quail lands.

HATCHING THE PROJECT

Kubecka said he first met Gordy in 2017 at a Dallas Safari Club banquet. The men talked quail and he eventually showed him pictures and graphics illustrating some of Tall Timbers fire plots. Gordy liked what he saw.

One thing led to another and a few years later the two men fashioned a habitat management blueprint to transform Rock Creek into a Georgia style quail plantation.

Gordy took the reins and ran with it. In 2019, work began to create a well-manicured, 2,500-acre “focal area” at the epicenter of the ranch that would eventually be on the receiving end of wild-trapped northern bobwhites brought in from Florida.

“Starting from the ground up to develop a wild quail plantation is a daunting task, but the challenge was one made for Garrett’s wheelhouse,” Kubecka said. “He is a paragon naturalist and conservationist.”

Kubecka said Gordy has done a great job and followed the blueprint to the tee thus far. In addition to thinning of timber, the property has undergone intense manipulation using prescribed fire and mulching using mechanical means.

The idea was to eliminate dense stands of yaupon holly and other undesirable vegetation from the forest floor and create an open understory laced with native grasses and other goodies that quail prefer. An intensive predator control program also was launched to help take the bite out of varmints prone to dine on the ground nesting birds. In time, the habitat management footprint will encompass most of the ranch, Kubecka said..

The process has worked beautifully. So well that Kubecka authorized delivery of 120 wild trapped birds (60 hens and 60 cocks) from Florida to the property earlier this year. The release came well ahead of the months-long nesting season that began April 15.

Prior to release, each bird was equipped with a radio transmitter with a unique code. The transmitters help researchers monitor habitat use, survival rates, breeding success and other important demographics.

FLYING HIGH: A BANNER YEAR

Kubecka says the end goal behind every Tall Timbers translocation effort is to wind up with a harvestable quail population that will sustain itself within a few years. Radio telemetry research conducted on the initial release birds at Rock Creek indicates they are liking their new surroundings just fine.

The birds have enjoyed a remarkable nesting season thus far. In fact, the documented reproduction rate surpasses any Tall Timbers’ Texas translocation effort before it, Kubecka said.

As of Aug. 2, researchers had documented 70 nests (1.3 nests per hen) and 308 chicks. “We currently have another 10 other birds incubating nests,” Kubecka said. “In terms of adult survival and days post-release, survival is 59 percent after seven months. That doesn't sound like much, but in terms of quail survival where average annual survival is 20-25 percent, it's good.”

Kubecka is quick to point out that one year of banner reproduction certainly doesn’t establish a trend, and it’s never a good idea to count your chickens before they hatch.

Regardless, Kubecka feels optimistic about the future. He says additional birds will be translocated to the property over the next few years. The belief is the population will continue to build and eventually spread across the entire ranch and onto adjacent properties where landowners are willing to manage for quail.

“There is no reason to believe that we would see this solid of performance in the first year and not in the second and third years,” he said. “If we see this level of growth for three years straight, mathematically we should have enough birds to have a harvestable population. The goal is to have a bird per acre in the focal area.”

GARNERING SUPPORT

The early success and rich potential for expansion outside the core translocation area hasn’t gone unnoticed. In addition to the Gordy’s, the Western Pineywoods Quail Program has garnered significant support from heavy hitters like Park Cities Quail Coalition, the Greater Houston Quail Coalition, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, multiple non-governmental organizations, private donors and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Dedicated landowners and collaborators interested in learning more about this project or launching new ones can contact Kubecka by email, bkubecka@talltimbers. org.

Matt Williams is a freelance outdoors writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@ yahoo.com.