Maryland

Maryland bobwhite quail holds on in two strongholds, the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland, after a long decline; Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) restoration work at Nanticoke River Wildlife Management Area on the Eastern Shore is the state's clearest current recovery example. The season runs statewide from early November through mid-January, with two closures: Allegany and Garrett Counties, and all DNR-owned or managed land east of the Susquehanna River. The Allegany/Garrett closure reflects range, not restriction: that far-western mountain country is ruffed grouse habitat, not quail range. Ruffed grouse, in turn, is confined to that same western Appalachian country, with Garrett and Allegany Counties holding the state's greatest abundance and smaller numbers extending east into Washington and western Frederick Counties; its season runs from early October through the end of December.

Ring-necked pheasant is a put-and-take stocking program run at public sites spread across all three of Maryland's regions, Eastern Shore, central, and western, rather than concentrated in one; the season runs from early November through the end of February. DNR has not stocked birds intended to establish a wild population since the late 1960s or early 1970s, though scattered, low-density residual wild pheasant are still occasionally reported in central Maryland's Carroll, Baltimore, Frederick, and Washington Counties.