Fields of Dreams

Eastern Shore Conservationists hope if they build it, the bobwhite quail will come (back)

- ASHLEY STIMPSON

Before you make it across the four-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Maryland’s Anne Arundel County to its rural Eastern Shore, the birds are impossible to overlook: kamikaze seagulls weave between the cables, stoic cormorants atop them. Beyond the bridge, as farmland spreads out before you like a lavish feast, the reliable denizens of the fields appear — turkey vultures, egrets and Canada geese (don’t be fooled — some of those are decoys). Turn down the country lanes that divvy up the land and you’ll dodge doves, bluebirds and mockingbirds as they dart across the road. Above, incoming or outgoing flocks remain distant scribbles on a blue canvas of sky. If you were taking an avian roll call, it seems there’d be a checkmark by all the big local names — except for one notable exception: the prince of game birds, the bobwhite quail.

Quail used to be abundant here, and quail hunting was as beloved a cultural tradition as crabbing. Now, conservationists are hoping to bring the quail back to the Shore through efforts that could have far-reaching benefits down the roster and for the Chesapeake Bay.

A Familiar Story

It’s not just the quail. A lot of things have changed on the Shore. After the bridge was completed in 1952, development spread like a bad cold in an elementary school. Mirroring the national trend, agriculture shifted from orchards to dairies to animal feed, from family farms to factory farms. Hedgerows and riparian buffers gave way to fencerow-to-fencerow planting, with crops doused in potent chemicals.