Hi folks,

My wife and I have some land in central Alberta with a few sharptails on it. Since we bought the place a year and a half ago, we've noticed increasing numbers of sharptails on it. We'd like to encourage this. The land is mostly native grass and trees, but there is some scabby tame grass as well. We are thinking about reseeding the tame grass with native species. Does anyone know where I could find out what, if any, native vegetation mix would benefit sharptails the most?

Dean

My thoughts, if it ain't broke don't (try to) fix it. I think a local DNR biologist would best be able to answer your question.

How much land do you have? Any pictures? Sharptails are really neat birds, I'd like to hunt them someday.

StormGSP,

We have a 1/2 section (320 acres) with about 80 acres in tame grass. The previous owner overgrazed it some. I like the "don't fix what isn't broken" idea, but... The native grass came back really well last summer (it was really wet), but the tame grass is still crap. Since we prefer the native grass for a variety of reasons, we are thinking of doing some tinkering.

As for pictures, I got some decent ones of a flock of 7 sharptails from the kitchen window on Tuesday. Naturally, I left the camera up there. I'll post some pics when I can get them off the camera.

Dean

Sounds like a neat picture, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

If you do some improvements, I would imagine it is better to do it in small pieces so that the sharpies don't leave for an undisturbed area.

I have been trying to nurture our small remnant sharptail population on my property for over 25 years. Please DON"T break any native sod with the intention of "improving" it!! You might try some improvement on your tame grass sections. We have found a mixture of 8-10 native grasses and 3-4 native legumes are required to simulate native grassland that is attractive to wildlife. Stay away from meadow brome and crested wheatgrass in any case. Sharptails do like berry bushes, and some sea buckthorn, Saskatoons, buffalo berry and chokecherry will help provide feed and thermal cover. The Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation published a very good manual called "Managing your Native Prairie Parcels" that has been particularly helpful to us. Author Jim Moen, tel. no. of SWCC is 306-787-0726 A very good appendix contains an abundance of resources for a project such as yours.