[Birdnet] San Juan county Gambel's quail

[L. D. Giddings]

On Friday July 14th at about 9 a.m. I saw two Gambel's quail in the
brush along the west side of Yellow-Jacket Creek immediately west of
Ismay's trading post in southeastern San Juan county. This is about 14
miles southeast of the Square Tower section of Hovenweep National
monument. I also heard at least two additional birds a little further
upstream and on opposite sides of the gully from each other. I'm not
exactly sure where the Utah-Colorado border runs with respect to the
trading post and the creek, but if these birds were not in Utah, they
were close enough to spit watermelon seeds into the state.

For those wondering, while Gambel's quail are common in Washington
county, to the best of my knowledge this species is seldom reported
elsewhere in the state despite the apparent range of the bird depicted
in maps in some of the more popular field guides. It is thought that the
bird was extirpated from southeastern Utah several decades ago. Although
Utah DWR made an attempt to re-introduce the bird in San Juan county in
1976 I do not know if they are aware of its current status in the area
today. It is my impression that Gambel's quail is a rare permanent
resident of this small portion of San Juan county, although I may be
mistaken either as to it's abundance or it's range.

I am interested in other reports of this bird in areas other than
Washington county, and especially in southeastern Utah. If you have seen
the bird elsewhere and are willing to share that information, I would
appreciate it.

My thanks to Dean and Mona Hill who have seen the birds previously and
who alerted me to their presence several weeks ago. And my thanks to
Chuck Larue for the additional information with which he has provided me
on quail in San Juan county.

Lu Giddings