Chehaw to host first of public lecture series

ALBANY — When is the last time you heard the call of a bobwhite quail? It would be a fair guess that, for many readers, it has been quite some time and for those that have heard the distinctive three-note whistle, it has not been as often as you would like.

On Northern Bobwhite Quail Day Monday, the Friends of Chehaw will host a lecture focused on the “Prince of Gamebirds.” The lecture, which is the first of a series hosted by Friends of Chehaw, will be held at the park’s Creekside Education Center. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and the lecture, which is free to the public, will begin at 7 p.m.

Nationally recognized experts in the field of quail management will present information related to the history, management and conservation of the Longleaf Pine uplands and the northern bobwhite quail.

Clay Sisson, director of the Tall Timbers Albany Quail Management Project, which is headquartered at Pineland Plantation, will talk about the project’s conservation and restoration efforts in the region.

Jessica McGuire, the Quail Forever conservation group’s Working Lands for Wildlife bobwhite coordinator, will be a speaker. McGuire has worked as a consultant for private land habitat management and has worked as Georgia’s red-cockaded woodpecker biologist. She currently is the Private Lands Program manager and interim state quail coordinator, a position funded by the Georgia Bobwhite Quail Initiative.

Dallas Ingram, a biologist for the groups, has been providing technical assistance to landowners throughout southwest Georgia since 2011. In 2018 she took over the role as state quail coordinator.

Landowners interested in quail management or others interested in the game bird’s history and life cycle are come out and hear what the experts have to say.

File Photo