The Lincolnshire Bird Club

it seems to have been a good year for Quail in the north of the county -- as I heard one singing in a new location this morning I wondered just how long they sing for through August? into September? looking at BWP update it looks as if it could even be as late as October; the update is full of new data and reveals a whole new world of Quail info that I had overlooked -- but some of the text is certainly different! quotation below
Apparent great variation in numbers from year to year in Europe could be the result of opportunistic changes of pre-nuptial migratory impulse rather than real quantitative variations of the Palearctic population as a whole.

I did read somewhere that Quail arrive in Southern Europe from late march onwards and in favourable years they breed there then move North to breed again. There must be some method in this Quail madness. It also explains why we have more birds singing in late summer.

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John

http://thedrunkbirder.wordpress.com/

http://www.johnhague.co.uk

thats interesting john i didn't know that, you never stop learning

terry whalin

Graham,

I read an article recently, which unfortunately I can't trace at the moment, which stated that the offspring of early breeding quail in North Africa move northwards in search of territories and form a second wave of arrivals in Northern Europe in mid to late summer. According to the same article quail become sexually mature and able to breed at 15 weeks of age (I quote from memory).

Regards,

John Watt