A total of 20,000 quail are set to be stocked in seven locations around the state through October with 12,000 already having been released since August.
The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources is beginning a program to restock quail in the state’s wild areas.
Stocking is the process of raising birds up to a certain age before releasing them into a designated habitat. A total of 20,000 quail are set to be stocked in seven locations around the state through October with 12,000 already having been released since August.
Those locations include:
Cross Creek Wildlife Management Area
Pleasant Creek Wildlife Management Area
Huttonsville State Farm Wildlife Management Area
Burnsville Lake Wildlife Management Area
Frozen Camp Wildlife Management Area
Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area
Greenbrier State Forest
The program, called the “Governor’s Quail Stocking Initiative,” is of personal interest to Gov. Jim Justice, who is an avid fowl hunter. He said he hopes to see a regeneration of 10 to 30 percent in the state’s population. “It’s a cheap way of introducing quail back into West Virginia, and a very hopeful way of getting significant regeneration,” Justice said. “And then off we go.”
Quail used to be a common sight in West Virginia, but habitat loss starting 50 years ago saw a massive decrease in their numbers. A previous attempt was made to reintroduce quail to West Virginia in 2020, releasing wild birds from Texas at the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan County.
West Virginia officials say they still haven’t discovered why diseased birds were found in the state’s Eastern Panhandle but continue to advise people in two counties not to feed birds for now.
Birds shouldn’t be fed in Berkeley and Jefferson counties until the problem subsides, the state Division of Natural Resources said Friday. Feeders and bird baths should be cleaned with hot, soapy water and sterilized in 10% bleach solution — one part bleach to nine parts water — rinsed with water and allowed to air dry.
Reports of sick and dead birds have decreased since late July, the agency said. Although a final diagnosis hasn’t been made, the division said several pathogens have not been detected, including salmonella, avian influenza and West Nile virus.
The agency recommends not handling birds but wearing disposable gloves if handling is necessary. Keep pets away from sick or dead wild birds as a precaution.
People outside the outbreak area may feed birds but should repair and disinfect their feeders. If sick or dead birds are found near feeders or bird baths, remove the feeder or bath for two weeks and sterilize with a 10% bleach solution, the agency said.
Hummingbird feeders should be cleaned with soap and water and food replaced every few days, the agency said.
Wildlife management officials are trying to find out why birds across the mid-Atlantic are becoming sick and dying.
Original reports found birds in parts of West Virginia and other states experiencing eye swelling and crusty discharge, as well as neurological signs including tremors.
Wildlife officials recommended removing bird feeders as they suspected that was how the illness is spreading. But now that idea is coming into question.
Eric Douglas spoke with Ethan Barton, the wildlife disease specialist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources by Zoom.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Douglas: We’ve been hearing a lot of these reports that started in what was mostly the Eastern Panhandle, Maryland and Northern Virginia. But now it seems like it’s spread up to Wisconsin and Missouri and across Kentucky. Do we have any idea yet what’s going on?
Barton: Not yet. Our first reports in West Virginia were in Berkeley and Jefferson counties at the beginning of June. At this point, we’ve had reports of somewhere between about 100 and 150 bird deaths with not all of those being related to this. So far, the bulk of the reports have still come from Berkeley and Jefferson counties. There’s been a wide range of mortality that’s been reported, but few large events seem to be related to this. So we’ve got a lot of ones and twos and threes. Still primarily young birds, with inflammation around eyes, crusty discharge around eyes, and similar species that the other states have been seeing — robins, grackles, European Starlings. We’re still working with diagnostic labs and with partner agencies like the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) and other state agencies.
The latest news to come out is that this does not seem to be viral in origin, at least not a known virus. And there have also been some tests for salmonella, chlamydia, trichomonas, which is a parasite, and all negative.
Douglas: You said 100 to 150 bird deaths in West Virginia. It’s in multiple states, but I assume the numbers are relatively small in all of those as well.
Barton: I don’t think any of the other states have seen large scale mortality events. And it does seem to be a lot of penny packets — ones, and twos and threes at a given location.
Douglas: Is it because they’re birds and they die in places where people aren’t? Or is it just that it’s just a really small incident?
Barton: At this point, in terms of scale, it’s hard to put your finger on exactly how many birds are going to be involved. There was larger press involvement, and we see this with wildlife diseases, that people who are not well-versed in these things will suddenly start calling to report any dead bird they find — not necessarily just ones that are exhibiting the clinical signs. So it seems to be relatively widespread, but the actual mortality seems to be pretty diffuse and relatively low intensity.
Douglas: You don’t think there are millions of birds falling out of the sky, but it’s still something to be concerned about.
Barton: Yeah, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The interesting part here is the really heavy involvement of younger birds. Younger birds don’t have a fully-developed immune system yet. They’re not going to be able to respond to a parasite or pathogen that may be innocuous to an adult bird. At this point, it doesn’t seem like it’s something as serious as say avian botulism, where you may find thousands of waterfowl dead in the same wetland.
Douglas: You seem to be talking about the larger song birds, the grackles, robins and blue jays.
Barton: Most of our reports have been those starlings, grackles, robins. We have had a few others like yellow billed cuckoo, and some other states have observed that as well. We weren’t actually able to get good specimens of those to ship to the lab. The ones that had been found were pretty rotted up. And that’s true when investigating avian mortality events, especially with small birds in the heat of the summer, little birds go bad, awfully fast.
Douglas: You talk about what it isn’t. Do you have any possibilities of what is causing the problem?
Barton: Other states and ourselves, we started to get our first reports around the time that the 17-year brood 10 cicadas were starting to emerge. So I think the Smithsonian and a few others have floated some possible relationships there.
Douglas: The good news is the brood 10 cicadas are pretty much done now, right?
Barton: If it is cicada related, we and the other states around us should be seeing that subside pretty quickly. We have sent some of the brood 10 cicadas from West Virginia. I know Virginia collected a number and sent them. I think some other states did too, trying to run some toxicology on them. Thus far there’s not been a whole lot of support for the idea and given the results, it doesn’t seem to be toxin related. So far, they’ve been relatively clean.
But we’re thinking that probably what’s going on here with young birds being primarily the ones that are involved is that this may be multifactorial. We’re doing our best to keep up with public calls, trying to triage those out, figure out what’s related, what’s not related, making records, identifying the species and then shipping out specimens as we can to try to get to the bottom of what’s going on here.
Douglas: The fact that it’s probably not viral means that it’s probably not being transmitted at bird feeders and bird baths. But I assume for the short term, the recommendation is still to not feed for the summer.
Barton: Especially in those affected counties and the other counties in West Virginia, we’ve recommended that people think about good feeder hygiene. Best practice for bird feeders is that they should really be taken down and thoroughly cleaned every 10 to 14 days even in the absence of a unique event like what seems to be going on this year.
There are avian diseases that commonly are spread at bird feeders, especially in the warmer months. Things like trichomonas, which is a protozoan parasite, and you’ve got others like avian pox that may be spread there, salmonella may be spread there and is a pretty big killer of small birds. And then mycoplasma is a bacteria that can lead to similar symptoms to what we’re seeing here. It’s primarily known in house finches.
So regardless of whether or not this is viral, or what the origin of it is, it’s still solid guidance for people to do their part for the resource that they care about and are feeding to try to keep them healthy.
Wildlife managers in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia have received an increasing number of reports about sick and dying birds in recent weeks, according to a statement from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The agency said birds have experienced eye swelling and crusty discharge, as well as neurological signs including tremors, keeping their heads tilted or having trouble balancing.
At least 325 reports of sick birds have been collected, and the condition appears to affect only young blue jays and grackles. A definitive cause of death has yet to be determined.
Birds can transmit diseases to one another when they gather at feeders and baths, so it’s best to let birds find their own food in the spring and summer when it is plentiful.
Environmental agencies recommend basic precautions such as avoiding handling birds without gloves, keeping pets away from birds and cleaning feeders with bleach.
If you encounter sick or dead birds, please contact your state or district wildlife conservation agency. If you must remove dead birds, place them in a sealable plastic bag and discard them with household trash.
The District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and National Park Service are continuing to work with diagnostic laboratories to investigate the cause of mortality.
Those laboratories include the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the University of Georgia Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study and the University of Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program.
On his family’s farm in Randolph County, W.Va. 20-year-old Collin Waybright has a hobby that’s very different from streaming TV shows or playing video games. Waybright is one of the state’s youngest falconers. To be a falconer, you have to love birds and Waybright fits the bill.
“They all have different flight styles. And it’s amazing,” Waybright said. “They’re just so effortless. They can just soar on thermals. And whenever it gets a little windy, they just kind of tuck their wings back a little bit and go into it.”
Since he was a teenager, Waybright said he’s been impressed by the way birds’ bodies are built, and he feels it’s proof that a higher power has a hand in creating animals.
“Birds can teach us many things,” said Waybright.
Falconry, the sport of hunting with falcons or other birds of prey, dates back to 5,000 B.C in Mongolia. Some historians say people may have been bonding and partnering with birds of prey even longer than that.
Like most falconers, Waybright loves watching the birds hunt. But even more than that, he just loves watching them fly. At times, it’s like he vicariously gets to fly himself.
“I definitely have wished quite a few times that I could fly. I wish I could be up there. Just flying around. Be really cool.”
Learning To Be A Falconer
Waybright is one of 31 people in the state who have falconry licenses. Some surrounding states like Pennsylvania have more falconers, according to Rich Bailey, ornithologist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources.
Each state has its own licensing program, which includes an extensive test, and several years apprenticing with a master falconer. “It’s a very hard test,” said master falconer Mick Brown, who’s been practicing falconry for 18 years in Ohio, and all over the U.S. “I have an insurance license, investment license and a real estate license. The hardest test I ever took [was] the falconry test, to be honest with you.”
The test includes how to take care of a raptor, including disease and medicines, to ensure that people and wild animals are both protected. Only licensed falconers can care for birds of prey.
“If I go out of town, I can’t have you feed my bird,” said Brown. “I have to have a licensed falconer feed my bird. There’s not that many. So, I have to either take it to a falconer’s house and have him feed him or have him come to my house and feed him. So it’s very difficult.”
Brown said becoming a falconer requires a good deal of money. “It’s very expensive to get into.” Brown said he estimates it takes about $10,000 to get started. The cost of food is also expensive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZXTzxQhIYc
Waybright’s First Hawk
Waybright had a little help with his initial expenses, since he was just 14 years old when he started as a falconry apprentice. Another falconer loaned him the pens he needed, as well as the goshawk trap he used to trap his very first bird of prey.
The first thing a falconer does once they receive a license to become a falconry apprentice is trap their own young bird in the wild.
“The typical way that falconry works is you trap a young bird in juvenile plumage and train it,” Waybright said.
So in the middle of January six years ago, Waybright trekked out in the snow to try to catch a young red-tailed hawk. He said there were subzero temperatures the night he left a rabbit as bait in a Swedish Goshawk trap.
He went to check the trap early the next morning. “It was dark and the trap was shut. You never know what you’re going to catch. You could catch an owl, a hawk, something like that. This was the first bird I had caught, and it was a juvenile red-tailed hawk. Out of all the birds that I could have caught for the first time in that trap, it was what I was after. And that is just amazing to me to this day.”
He named that red-tailed hawk Ace. He loved that bird, and for about two months, he spent all his spare time training Ace, hunting with Ace. His mom, Marsha Waybright, said her son and the hawk were nearly inseparable. Falconry requires that a falconer forms a strong bond with a bird of prey.
Hawks aren’t motivated to hunt on command; they hunt for the same reasons a hawk does in the wild—because they’re hungry. That means a falconer has to keep close tabs on their bird’s weight, making sure they don’t get overfed- but also stay healthy. Waybright taught Ace calls so they could communicate in the woods. Waybright hunts small animals with his hawks, like rabbits or squirrels. Waybright walks through fields and forest and the bird follows, flying from tree top to tree top, scanning for prey. They hunt together like this, but the birds really do most of the work. Waybright usually lets his hawks eat the prey, after they kill it.
Waybright got very attached to his first bird, Ace. They hunted together, for several years, just the two of them.
In the wild, half of hawks die in their first year. If they survive past that, hawks typically live another nine or so years. But if a falconer is feeding them, they can live for up to three decades. Collin’s hawk Ace wasn’t so lucky.
“Ace ended up passing away in the second season I trained him,” Waybright recalled. “He was fine one day. Then the next day, he was acting a little bit slow. Next day, there was clearly something wrong. [So I] called the Raptor Center.”
The West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center in Fairmont advised Waybright, trying to determine what was wrong with Ace.
“And then the next day he had passed away. So that’s one of the hardest things, ever.” Waybright said the veterinarians told him Ace probably died from a genetic disease.
Since then, he’s trained eight birds of prey. He’s released some of these birds back into the wild.
Teaching Others
Even today, six years after first discovering his love of hawks, he recalls the first time he saw a bird of prey, at a public event at Stonewall Resort.
“I saw this raptor display, and I thought it was just amazing.”
Now, doing presentations with the public is one of Waybright’s favorite parts of being a falconer. Especially teaching children about birds.
Credit courtesy Marsha Waybright
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Collin Waybright teaching a group of kids about falconry and introducing them to his hawk Rico.
“I ask them questions as I’m talking to them, and their reactions to the questions are just priceless. I’ll look at them and ask, ‘how much do you guys think this bird weighs?’ And I’ll get guesses from 20 to 100 pounds. It’s just funny whenever you say, ‘well, no, this guy only weighs about two to three pounds.’ And then the jaws drop, you know?”
Most of these public talks have been put on hold during the pandemic. But Waybright said he does offer informal demonstrations at his family’s farm, where his mother also manages a bed and breakfast. And one day, he said if someone approaches him with the right passion for learning falconry, he’d consider taking them on as an apprentice.
His advice to anyone who is interested is that they “go hunting with a falconer. Go experience that. Go make sure if it’s something you want to do.” Waybright said if someone approached him and asked if he would teach them, he would have to evaluate if the person is serious about becoming a falconer. “It’s not for everyone. You don’t want to get into it blindly. Make sure it’s something you really want to do before you become a falconer.”
While the coronavirus is forcing many of us to stay largely at home, spring in West Virginia has not gotten the message.
Flowers are blooming and birds are out in full force. Although many places are closed, West Virginians can still get outside during the coronavirus pandemic, as long as safe social distancing practices are observed.
One of the places that remains open is the West Virginia Botanic Garden. The 85-acre non-profit nature preserve is located in Morgantown, in what was previously the city’s water supply, Tibbs Run Reservoir. The reservoir was drained in 1980, and the property was leased to the West Virginia Botanic Garden in 1999.
Senior Producer John Nakashima recently spent some time at the Botanic Garden and found spring in full bloom.
