A Bobwhite Killing

Birders always hope for a rarity when they go on a Birding Weekend, but when Bob White finds the weekend leader sporting bullet holes in his chest, he realizes that more than an unusual bird is at stake. To make matters worse, Bob must contend with a lost love, big cats, ATV enthusiasts, and small-town intrigue as he sets out to find a killer, along with an elusive Northern Bobwhite, in Minnesota's Fillmore County. In this third Birder Murder mystery, Bob discovers that the past and present can collide in surprising ways to shape the future...assuming he'll survive the weekend and still be around to see it.

What do bestselling writers Sue Grafton, Danielle Steel, Curtis Sittenfeld (Prep) and Tom Clancy all have in common? They’ve all been shockingly murdered in a manner both gruesome and appropriate to their style. Now, an extremely paranoid Stephen King is convinced that he will be the next victim. With great trepidation, he leaves his heavily-barricaded fortress in Bangor, Maine, to discover Who’s Killing the Great Writers of America? This hilarious send-up of the world of publishing by the author of Me and Orson Welles and The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun takes us from Venice to Paris to Swan’s Island and offers cameo appearances by Steve Martin, Gérard Depardieu, as well as quite a few surprises. A must- read for anyone who loves to laugh!

Texas Quails presents the first complete assessment of the four species of quail found in this vast state. Experts describe each of them and examine all geographic regions of the state for historical and current population trends, habitat status, and research needs. These experts also discuss management practices, hunting issues, economics, and diseases.

This book documents the biology of six species of New World quails that are native to North America north of Mexico (mountain, scaled, Gambel's, California, and Montezuma quails, and the northern bobwhite), three introduced Old World partridges (chukar, Himalayan snowcock, and gray partridge), and the introduced common (ring-necked) pheasant. Collectively, quails, partridges, and pheasants range throughout all of the continental United States and the Canadian provinces. Two of the species, the northern bobwhite and ring-necked pheasant, are the most economically important of all North American upland game birds. All of the species are hunted extensively for sport and are highly popular with naturalists, birders, and other outdoor enthusiasts.

This book presents the results and con­clusions of the longest continuous study ever undertaken for a local North Ameri­can game bird population. Since 1950 abundance has been deter­mined seasonally by direct count, nesting ecology by field searches and observation, and hunting pressure and harvest by field interviews. Land use and weather condi­tions also have been recorded. The period of the study saw considerable change in regional land use and included several of the most severe winters in recorded weather history. Continuing harvest of the study popu­lation did not have a progressively de­pressing effect on standing densities; rather it held breeding stock somewhat below K at a more productive point on the growth curve. Roseberry and Klimstra report that there was clear evidence of an 8 to 10-year cycle within the study population. They found after examining a number of cycle theories that a close temporal relationship existed between their bobwhite data and the nodal lunar cycle described by Archibald (1977). Sound field techniques, long-term data acquisition, and appropriate mathe­matical and statistical treatment of the data combine to provide a significant contribution to what is known of not only bobwhite but basic population ecology.