Murray Lord sent me the accompanying shot of a Painted Button-quail and commented that this was the first one he had seen since 1985. By the way this one was photographed at the Warriewood Wetlands in NSW. My reason for including it here is to pose the question of Quail sightings. There was a time when I regularly flushed quail at such places as Seven Mile Beach reserve, Goat Bluff South Arm, Mortimer Bay and many places in the Huon area, but I can't actually recall the last one of any species that I've seen.My last sight of a Painted Button-quail in Tasmania, was during the first Atlas, in the late 1970s from memory, when Mike Newman showed me a pair at Lenah Valley. They were very approachable, just as Murray mentions his was.
Am I alone in not seeing quail these days? I would be interested in receiving comments.
[Murray shot this at 3200ISO, but they still seem pretty good. Murray also mentions that this is the 5th species of Quail/Button-quail, he has seen this month!]
4 comments:
"A Quail" was seen on Sunday near Buckland on the Birds Tasmania excursion, we were looking for Spotted Quail Thrush but the closest we came was a lone quail, seen by one person and heard by a couple of others.
I have seen quail in the hills above the waterworks and on Maria Island in the last year or so though I have never been able to get a good enough look at them to ID them properly, I have assumed Brown Quail .
Very nice shot of the bird too - what camera was used to capture such a clean image at 3200 ISO?
We flushed what we sopposed to be a Brown Quail (fleeting glimpse) on the track to West Point, near Marrawah, last June. Prior to that, the only quail we have seen in Tas was another Brown by the track to Cape Queen Elizabeth, on Bruny Island, in 2003. Certanily not what you'd call abundant! We'd love to see one of the Button Quails, but no success in that quarter yet!
Hi Felix, Murray tells me he used a 400 f5.6L lens on a Canon 350D for his pic. and shot in RAW format. Answering your question about hides--I don't use one, although I do have one somewhere! I prefer a 'walk up' style.
I would agree that there are few quail to be seen in Tasmania. There has been the odd one spotted around parts of the Huon in the past few years.
I would suspect that recreational shooting is a major culprit. In 2007 shooters reported shooting 4423 brown quail in Tasmania, and in 2008 it was 5115. These figures are supplied courtesy of DPIW.
An open season is declared each year and yet there are no surveys. How can this be so? It's time to demand action from the Minister to ban quail shooting.
Post a Comment