Quail

A small farm near Mayo has been fertile ground for cows and crops for more than seven decades. A group of local hunters and conservationists hopes it will be the same for quail, wild turkey and other wildlife. Last Wednesday, Jamie Roell led folks from Quail Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation on a tour of Westbury Farm to see if the untilled portion of the 300 acres might be a good bird sanctuary. Roell sells yachts for a living. But his passion is the future of this farm.

THIS WEEK, THE prime time for holiday-food traditions, presents a problem for me. Almost every time I encounter someone else's holiday-food custom, I have to fight the urge to make it mine.The other day, for instance, I was reading holiday-food recollections of some well-known food writers and cookbook authors in "Christmas Memories With Recipes" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988). In every chapter, I encountered a dish or a practice that I wanted to add to our family traditions.When, for instance, I read about the Christmas dinners of Craig Claiborne's Mississippi boyhood, with fried ham, red-eye gravy and smothered quail, I was licking my lips and thinking that this Christmas would be a good time to reacquaint myself with that red-eye gravy.

"Cockbird," I shouted as the brilliantly colored pheasant exploded 15 or 20 yards ahead of my hunting partner, Bob Chrest.In an instant Bob's 12 gauge Remington 1100 flew to his shoulder, the muzzle swung past the cackling rooster and a charge of high brass sixes hit home.Bob moved up quickly to collect his bird, but because of the extremely heavy brush, I had to shove my way to the general spot in question and lend a hand in locating the first pheasant of 1988 to be bagged by this slightly unreputable team of ringneck addicts.

The 70 or so people who will sit down Tuesday evening to braised New Zealand lamb shanks with a berry sauce, accompanied by a 1994 Michelton reserve cabernet sauvignon, also will have a chance to contribute to a local charity.Between the six courses of the prix fixe dinners -- each accompanied by a featured wine -- served an average of 10 times a year at Quail Ridge Inn on Route 27 north of Mount Airy, diners can participate in a silent auction to benefit Carroll County Children's Fund."Carroll County is a very giving county," said Quail Ridge Inn owner Austin Isemann.

Although the Department of Natural Resources is initiating a hunter survey on bobwhite quail in Maryland, a game manager with DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Division said last week that the results of the study might do little to solve the complex riddle of the bird's low population in the state."

The bad news for quail hunters in the state is that the severe weather of last winter and the wet summer months probably will have numbers of the birds in the state at low levels this hunting season.The good news is that the Department of Natural Resources has initiated a multi-year program designed to learn more about ways to help bobwhite quail."Bobwhite quail populations throughout the eastern United States have been declining in recent years," said DNR Secretary John R. Griffin. "One of the primary factors contributing to this decline has been a decrease in the availability of quality quail habitat."

Ten years ago when Austin Isemann was a student at Western Maryland College, he took a job as a gardener at the Quail Ridge Inn in Mount Airy to make some extra money.What a difference a decade makes.Now Mr. Isemann is the owner of the Quail Ridge Inn, but he hasn't given up his gardening duties."I just did some gardening work the other day," said Mr. Isemann, 30. "You always return from whence you came."A resident of Mount Airy for the past 10 years, Mr. Isemann worked at the Quail Ridge Inn during most of his college years at Western Maryland.

Quail are noted for abrupt rises or declines in their numbers. But Peter Jayne, leader of Maryland's upland game and furbearer programs, said last week that during the past 15 years the state's quail population has shown a sharp downward trend.When measured by the hunter harvest survey, the quail populatlon has dropped from 250,000 birds in 1975 to fewer than 42,000 in 1991."That is an 82-percent decline," Jayne said.The harvest survey is based on numbers of quail killed, and that is directly related to the number of hunters in the field.

The questions regarding waterfowl seasons have not been resolved, but Maryland has finalized its 1993-1994 hunting dates and bag limits for upland and forest game.Waterfowl dates -- including what may be as few as 18 days for migratory Canada geese -- are expected to be released this week.The major changes in hunting regulations are:* Rabbit season has been extended one week to offset a population increase and the week lost during the second week of firearms season for deer.* The quail season has been shortened by two weeks in the eastern zone (areas east of Interstate 83, I-695 and I-95)

QUAIL PRAISEChapters of Quail Unlimited in Maryland, DNR upland game program director Peter S. Jayne says, have done an extraordinary job in assisting with restoration of the species in the state."