A bird was the first Onalaska resident to greet me when we moved here 17 years ago on June 30. I had driven the rented moving van here ahead of the children and Gretchen. Arriving late I slept on the floor at the condominium we rented on East Avenue North.

Sunlight pouring through the uncurtained windows woke me very early. And then came the sweet, piercing two-note whistle of the bobwhite.

I stepped onto the deck and caught a glimpse of the covey as it scurried from the edge of the well-manicured lawn into the scrubby grasses of a large area of rolling dunes and small trees behind the house — just the sort of habitat the bobwhite likes. I was pleased and surprised to hear a bobwhite in the middle of our new community.

Since that time, of course, all of the area east of East Avenue North has been built up with beautiful homes — not the sort of habitat that the bobwhite prefers.

Knowing a little about the kind of habitat the bobwhite likes, I wasn’t surprised when I read recently that the bobwhite is No. 1 on the Audubon list of common birds in decline. The main reason for the 82 percent decline of the species in 40 years was the loss of suitable habitat due to large-scale agriculture, intensive pine-plantation forestry and development, according to Audubon.

Our area is at the northern edge of bobwhite’s range, so my early morning greeting from the bobwhite covey was all the more unusual. But that doesn’t mean that bobwhites must necessarily disappear from our area, Audubon says.

The Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative has been formed to help bobwhites and other grassland birds. Audubon urges that we preserve farmlands and support conservation measures in the new farm bill. Grassland protection is important as well. Bobwhites have been observed, for example, on the Northern Engraving grasslands in the town of Holland. The Mississippi Valley Conservancy is working with the owners to restore prairie on the 300 plus-acre conserved grassland. And global warming might be moving the range of bobwhites northward as it is with other species.

Audubon urges us to “support smart growth and protection of open spaces” and to “urge parks to devote large parcels to prairie restoration.”

There might still be a covey of bobwhites residing somewhere on the edges of Onalaska, giving nearby residents a cheery greeting on a June morning. I hope so. And I hope our area can do its share to provide a home for these and other grassland birds that need our help to survive.

As Audubon says, “Only citizen action can make a difference for the birds and the state of our future.”