Counting Stubble Quail During Harvest Operations - a Citizen Science Project

If you are looking to do something a little bit different this year during harvest time, why not give counting stubble quail a go?

Last year a citizen science project endeavored to estimate stubble quail presence and abundance across South Australia. A total of 124 paddocks in various agricultural areas were surveyed resulting in 17,194 individual birds counted with an average state-wide density of 1.28 quail per hectare. This suggested a population ranging from 6-17 million in South Australia’s agricultural areas.

Project Coordinator Matthew Godson is hoping to get more volunteers involved this year during harvest time. “We are looking for more harvest operators that would be interested and willing to conduct surveys in a paddock or two to help boost the number of sites surveyed across the state”.

The process to be involved is very easy. Volunteers just need to download and print off the data and information sheet (pdf attachment to upload) and put a copy (or two) in the cabin of their harvester. When it’s time to start harvesting simply fill in the date, location information and crop type. When it’s time to begin work, just start counting stubble quail as you see them flushing or running away from in front of the header. Once harvesting of a paddock is finished, add up the tally of quail counted and write that number and the paddock size on the datasheet.

You can survey as many paddocks as you like. Once the data sheet has been completed it can be sent directly to the project coordinator. Email or text a copy of the datasheet to Matthew Godson via wildlife@ssaa.org.au or 0448 887 079.

The report from last year’s surveys can be found here

The story behind the surveys can be viewed here.