Hi --

I have no Bobwhite in two Atlas blocks that in the 1980s BBA were common --
habitat in both more or less the same (parkland) in fact, in one it has
improved a little with more no-mow areas.

But then again, in the early 1970s we had them in our yard (2 acres adjacent
to Sligo Park in Silver Spring) -- in bad weather they would come up onto
the driveway and I recall swinging in rapidly off University Blvd. (to
escape barreling traffic) and almost running over a covey of 10-12 which
were pecking grit no more than 30' off this major road. They exploded in all
directions! We also had pheasants and I still have a cock pheasant tail
feather from one of our "local guys."

These all disappeared in the winter of 1976-77, when the Bay froze and I
assume they perished from bad weather in what was by then certainly marginal
habitat. They never came in to the bird feeders, unlike the wild turkeys
which visited my fried in Oakton during this same period.

Gail Mackiernan
Colesville, MD