1.  CATASTROPHIC DECLINE OF NORTHERN BOBWHITE

If there is any doubt about how quail are doing, the results of some
selected recent Christmas Bird Counts below should reinforce the feeling of
many that they are in drastic decline.  

For 20 years or so I conducted three North American Breeding Bird Surveys
in Dorchester County, MD, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.  Of the 50 stops
on each survey I would often detect quail on 30-40.  In recent years on
all-day May counts there covering 100+ miles in daytime hours we now often
note less than 10 birds. 

Here are the numbers of bobwhite found, the names of some Christmas counts
conducted this past December, and the number of observers for each count.

9       Back Bay N.W.R., VA             23
0       Cape Charles, VA                27first miss ever (42 years)
9       Cape Henlopen-Prime Hook, De    38
10      Chincoteague N.W.R., VA         28
0       Denton, MD                      27
3       Lower Kent County, MD           29
1       Nassawadox, VA                  21
0       Ocean City, MD                  47first miss ever (59 years)
0       Point Lookout, MD               16
6       St. Michaels, MD                49
0       Southern Dorchester County, MD c. 20
19      Wachapreague, VA                17
2       Williamsburg, VA                28

TOTAL 59 (some of these counts used to each routinely record over 100
quail, sometimes more than 200)

2.  HOWARD BROKAW HONORED.  At the joint October 2006 meeting in Vera Cruz,
Mexico, of several professional ornithological societies my friend Howard
P. Brokaw was honored by the American Ornithologists' Union with its Marion
Jenkinson Service Award.  In 1982 Howard was elected an Investing Trustee
of the A.O.U.  During his subsequent 25-year tenure as an investing trustee
the endowment of the A.O.U. increased over 18-fold.  This is described in a
fitting tribute in the January 2007 "Auk", volume 124, no. 1, pp. 355-356,
along with a color photograph of Howard in the field.

I had not seen Howard for a while.  In a recent phone conversation I told
him someone I know had thought they had seen him in a wheelchair.  Howard's
reply was: "Well, I play tennis 3 times a week."  Howard recently turned
90.  Until the year of our close mutual friend David Cutler's death in 2004
Howard would join us annually for an all-night May birding marathon in
Delaware.  On one of these at about 3 A.M. we had to descend a steep, damp
clay slope next to a Delaware City wetland at Dragon Run.  I chose not to
but I will not soon forget seeing Howard scramble up and down it as if he
were a high school student.      

Howard has served on many boards of ornithological and conservation
organizations among them the board of the National Audubon Society (two
seven-year terms) as well as as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of both
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1881-1985) and the
American Bird Conservancy (1994-2002).  He also has a North American life
list of well over 700.

3.  CORRECTIONS TO MY LAST POSTING.  

BISON.  They're at milepost 98.1 not 108.1 on Route 301 in MD.

CHESAPEAKE MARSHLANDS NATIONAL PARK (so to speak).  My list of protected
areas omitted the Maryland Ornithological Society's Irish Grove Sanctuary
in Somerset County, MD, a marvelous place of over 2 square miles.

The only people who don't make mistakes are those who don't do anything.

Best to all.-Henry ("Harry") T. Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia,
PA 19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Please, any off-list replies to: 
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com  (never, please, to 74077.3176 ....)