We were originally scheduled to work Friday-Sunday this week, substituting in the visitor center for Craig & Evelyn who are away (as opposed to our regular work week of Wednesday-Friday). Since Dan was alone on Wednesday and Thursday (the other volunteers, Chuck & Betty were also away), we offered to cover those days as well.
We ended up working Wednesday-Saturday overall...and what we did changed over time.
Wednesday was the simplest as we staffed the visitor center. It was not a busy day. We had zero visitors that day. We cleaned up things, read about the refuge and that was about it. After work we continued our battle with the skunk...remember the skunk?
The Story of The Skunk (a sidebar)
We thought the skunk had left since the fallen access panel had been replaced the day after the Grassland Fair, but it was down again the next morning. I looked underneath the trailer with a flashlight and saw nothing (I didn't crawl in). I put it back in place assuming the skunk had gone...I was wrong.
It was down again the next day. I noticed that one of the catches had pulled out, so I screwed it back on after looking underneath and seeing no sign of the skunk...I was wrong again.
The next day I checked the panel and the bottom had been pushed out. The skunk had been underneath and forced its way out. This time I assumed the skunk was back underneath and merely placed the panel back on with a single latch. The idea was to check in the afternoon and after dark. When the panel was moved in the evening, we could figure that the skunk was out on its nightly prowl and could fasten the hatch more securely, keeping it out. That's almost what happened.
That evening I went to check if the skunk had left and caught it in the act. It was one big skunk. I was fairly far away and when I shined my flashlight on it, it took off. This time I put the access panel back on and , in addition to the two latches, I leaned concrete blocks against each edge. This would keep it out...I was wrong.
The next day I checked the panel. No, it hadn't moved the blocks, but it had moved the panel. There is a cutout at the bottom of the panel to allow the air conditioning lines to go into the trailer. The panel is only framed on the sides. The skunk had evidently gotten its nose into the cutout and slid the panel up enough to get under (the concrete blocks merely held it in place so it didn't slide back down)....time to try another method.
I took the block off and set the panel in place to wait until it came back out again. Once again, it pushed it out in the evening (didn't see it this time). In addition to the blocks on each side, I laid a pair of blocks at an angle on the bottom edge of the panel and put two additional blocks on top of them. It would take Superskunk to move it this time.
So far, so good. The panel has not been breached in two days and the community trailer is not as odorous as it was. There is still a bit of residual musk, but the trailer is useable.
(end of sidebar)
Back to the work week. Chuck and Betty were back for Thursday, so we returned to more normal endeavors. We fed and watered the quails in the flight pens in the morning. Thursday is the day to do the hydrology measurements at Arivaca Cienega, so we went with Emily to do them. I now have the data and we will be updating it while we are here. In the afternoon, we continued with Grassland Fair cleanup, moving stuff from the admin conference room to a storage shed.
Friday brought something new. We were intending to work at the visitor center, but Dan had finally arranged for us to go over to the quail breeding facility and learn how to care for Masked Bobwhite Quail. The quail facility is beyond Arivaca in a closed remote section of the refuge. Once you leave the main road out of Arivaca it is a bumpy fifteen minute ride on dirt roads to the facility.
Here we met Paula, the bioscience technician responsible for the quail breeding and care. She is caring for well over 600 quail, most of which are this year's chicks...and she does it all by herself, with occasional help from Dan and Ann, the refuge biologists, and from Emily, the intern. She was really happy to see us and hopes that we can help out while we are here.
She spent much of the morning introducing us to the breeding program and the quail care. Unfortunately, the quail are kept for most of their lives in brooder cages and are kept indoors. Nobody on the refuge likes this, but funding doesn't allow the space to move them.
Prior to Paula, Dan and Ann, all recent additions to the refuge biology staff, the quail reintroduction program has not gone well. Originally, the quail were bred at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. They were shipped here and released. This was not successful.
There are lots of predators on the refuge:hawks, owls, falcons and ravens among the birds; coyote, foxes, mountain lions and bobcats among the mammals; and don't forget the snakes that like eggs and chicks. The habitat, while improved from the ranching days, was still not great for the quail. Everybody likes quail and those immature, naive, captive-bred quail didn't stand a chance.
Several other processes were attempted including imprinting the captive-bred quail on Texas Bobwhite foster parents before release. These were more successful and there was some natural reproduction, but the habitat was still too harsh and they did not thrive.
At some point the breeding program was moved to the refuge and a facility nearly identical to the one in Maryland was built. The release program was suspended in 2005 until a new plan could be established, but the breeding goes on. It is an endangered species and the only way, at the moment, to ensure their existence is this breeding effort. This is mandated by the Endangered Species Act, but funding is minimal at best.
They have started sending some of the quail to Mexico to a program there. Most of the historic range of the quail is in Mexico, but like here, the disappearance of habitat there has riven the quail to the edge there as well. It is hoped that they will be successful in breeding and release and it will also provide another remote population in the event of a disaster here.
Since the suspension of quail release program, most of the effort on the refuge has been on habitat restoration,. Some new efforts are being attempted, but still on a shoestring. There is the set of flight pens, which seem to have been underused. There are ten large and ten small outdoors pens totaling 20,000 sq. ft.. They still need work and only six are currently being used to hold about a hundred of the oldest birds and one small group of chicks. The hope is to move younger birds to the pens to breed and raise semi-wild birds which may be releasable.
In the meantime, the current generations of quail live in their cages. It is too late in the year to move any more to the pens. Caring for the birds means checking all of them every day, fixing wounds and other ailments, keeping them fed and watered, providing some "enrichment" in the form of boxes and things to peck (other than other birds, the biggest problem) and keeping the environment clean.
Earlier in the year, it was mostly about breeding. Paula was able to hatch and raise over 800 chicks this year. This is almost all of the current population of Masked Bobwhite Quail. The chicks are now nearly full-size and now she is trying to make space to keep them all well.
After being shown the facility and being fed way too much information on what to do and how to do it (everything from raising mealworms, to food mixtures, to how to move around the birds, to checking for injuries, to feeding and cleaning—Ellen has more than four pages of notes), we checked and fed the two rooms of adult birds while Paula did the same for the more crowded room full of chicks).
It was interesting work, but very detailed. It is a bit disheartening that the birds must be kept this way, but realize that it is the only way to stave off extinction until the political climate returns to sanity and compassion (if ever). It was more difficult for Ellen as her allergies kicked in while we were there, probably from the bird dander. We will probably be back next week to help out again. I know that Dan and Paula would like us to help out regularly, but we will see.
Today it was back to substitute visitor center duty. The day started with a long stint at the flight pens. Not only did we feed the birds, but had to feed the rodents...but they got poison!
There is quite a rodent problem there. They burrow under all the in-ground fencing, and wreak havoc undermining the pens. It will also be difficult to breed in the pens in the future, if the rodents are present. Traps have been tried, but without much success, so they have set out many boxes of rodent bait outside the active pens around the perimeter of the site and they needed checking and refilling. Unfortunately, the Ravens like bait and seem to be immune to it. They overturn the boxes, pry them open and eat the bait. Our job was to refill the boxes and weight them down with items like concrete blocks to discourage the Ravens.
We also finished moving Grassland Fair equipment into the storage shed. It is finally complete and the fair is packed away until next year. The rest of the day was in the visitor center where we has 19 visitors, a significant improvement over last time.
We are off until next Friday, except for the hydrology measurements on Thursday morning. Shopping tomorrow.
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