Bringing back the Bobwhites: Volunteers in an ongoing program

More than 1,000 adult northern Bobwhite/Quail were released Tuesday morning at the Silver Beach Bird Sanctuary and several other spots around the Island.

From a Pennsylvania farm, the birds are part of an ongoing program — “Bring Back Bobwhite” — that Island volunteers, including Shelter Island School students, parents, and environmentalists are participating in to replenish the stock of the diminishing flock. 

Voracious consumers of ticks, the little birds were once a familiar sight on the Island. In the wild it’s estimated that, of all babies hatched, 10% will reach adulthood. Their biggest predators on the Island are hawks and house cats.

Keeping cats in at night would be helpful, said Sean Clark, one of the project’s founders.

Islanders may recall that distinctive bobwhite call, now rarely heard, as predators and destruction of their natural habitats have taken their toll.

According to Kenn Kaufman’s “Birds of North America,” the male bobwhite “whistle their name from fence posts, low branches … small flocks (coveys) run on the ground, hide in dense grass of brushy fields and open woods.”