This is a fledgling who appeared with Red in my Wednesday post. This is such a fun year with a possible three babies to watch with Red and Mrs., my backyard cardinal couple.
Add to that multiple quail families with babies ranging from brand new and itty bitty to rangy teens.
Baby quail.
Papa guarding his babies.
A family of older babies hanging out in the shade under a bench with daddio. Smart birds! It’s gotten hot!
These are the itty bitty babies.
Then there’s the backyard bully bird — the Curve-Billed Thrasher. He doesn’t look so mean perched on a pink flamingo a friend gave me from Costco for a birthday present.
A female Gilded Flicker can make a quick dent in the food block.
Do you have a favorite photo? If so which one?
What’s on the agenda for the first weekend of June?
I was thrilled to see this cactus in bloom. But then a rabbit stopped by and ate the bud on top. It didn’t get a chance to bloom.
Red was mixing it up with the quail families.
One of the many families of quail who stopped by over the weekend. We have families with tiny babies up to teenagers now. The smallest family has two babies, another has three, then we have those with six, seven up to 10 babies.
A lone baby quail. One little guy flew up to the windowsill and hung out by me.
I took this with my iphone sitting at my little table. Eventually he flew down to catch up with his siblings and mom and dad.
I’m not sure, but I think this is a Desert Spiny Lizard after looking at photos of Arizona lizards.
A House Finch observes the scene in the backyard. It was a busy weekend for birds. I did get a photo using my iphone of a Harris’s Hawk eating it’s kill on top of a saguaro. But I thought better of sharing it. It’s kind of gross looking.
Red says “What are you guys looking at?”
I have a week of doctors appointments and driving my husband to PT. I even have one appointment for myself.
Momma quail with a few babies. We have three different quail families visiting our backyard every day. The tiniest ones are a family with three babies. I spotted them for the first time Friday. They are so adorable! Then there is a family with seven babies and one with eight.
Aren’t they cute?
Today we left the house at 5:15 a.m. to take my husband to surgery. I spent Sunday stressing about it. Not only am I worried about him, I’m worried about my own anxiety getting out of control. I have to drive him home from surgery, plus to follow up appointments and PT. I’m not a fan of driving here and once in a while I get a bout of driving anxiety. I think I’m talking myself into it as I sit and worry.
Hence, I’m focusing on cute baby quail.
Here’s to a speedy recovery for my husband and no driving anxiety for me!
Bird of the Week: CLXVI Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii)
A male and female Gambel’s quail that I photographed in our backyard. Every day I enjoy watching quail because they have gregarious personalities. There’s something about their topnots bobbing up and down that not only make them stand out, but add to their silly look.
“Gambel’s quail have a chunky round body with a feather plume on their head. Males have a dark and thick plume, a black face, neck and also a black patch on the breast. Females have more dull and thin feather plumes and lack the black markings. Mature males have much more striking plumage than females.” —Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
Gambel’s quail can be found throughout the southwest United States. Mature birds average eleven inches long and weigh from 5.1 to 6.5 ounces (160 to 200 grams.)
Here’s a link to Gambel’s Quail songs and calls from All About Birds.
We have a quail’s nest with 12 eggs in a planter of a succulents called elephant’s food. Unfortunately, the quail picked a busy place next to where our trash bins are stored. I moved our recycling into the garage, but our coming and going into the garbage storage area scared away the mom and dad. This is the second time this has happened to us. The other time, they picked a planter of elephant’s food next to the garage while we were on vacation. When we returned home with the car, those eggs were abandoned, too.
I was so excited a few days ago, to have baby quail visit our backyard with their mom and pop. I put out a birdseed block so the babies can get plenty of food. At this time, they aren’t able to fly up to our bird feeder. I have several families visiting in the morning and evenings.
Fun Quail Facts
A group of quail is called a “covey.”
A male quail will act as a sentinel standing guard over his covey from an elevated location. If he senses danger, he will call out loudly in warning.
Males and females pair for life.
The male has a top knot plume that is actually 6 feathers together, and is used to intimidate other males.
Their food of preference is wild bird seed, followed by uncooked rice or sunflower seeds.
Nests are mostly in pots or window boxes, and are made by hollowing out the nest in dirt.
There can be a total of seven to 28 eggs per nest, with the female laying one to two per day. It is common for two females to share a nest, which is called “egg dumping,” and the female only sits on the nest after all the eggs are laid.
Eggs are speckled brown and arranged in a neat oval called a “clutch.”
Incubation is 25 days at a temperature of 100 degrees, and eggs are turned often.
Before hatching the babies peep inside the egg.
They are born with a full coat of feathers, eyes wide open, and are able to feed themselves.
They all hatch on the same day and leave the nest immediately, usually in late May or June.
Chicks are able to leave the nest within hours of hatching, foraging with their parents, and are capable of flying short distances within a week
Quail couples can cohabitate and share the nest with a second couple.
The quail family with Momma, Papa and seven babies were right outside my window. But I didn’t see them. I was too busy taking pictures of Red. He was flitting from the cactus statue to the fire stick plant. His bright color captured my attention.
My husband sat down next to me and I said referring to Red, “Look out the window!”
“Itty bitties,” he said.
I thought he was referring to the handful of house sparrows darting to and from the birdbath.
He repeated himself and I finally looked and saw the quail babies! Our first family this Spring. I was thrilled!
I watched as a few daring babies wandered out of the group looking for food. Most stayed clumped together following mom and dad. I took a ton of photos, but they moved so fast only a few photos turned out. I love their cute little mohawks that someday will become topknots.
I checked our dozen eggs in a planter and they remain unhatched. I’m afraid the parents abandoned the nest after being frightened away.
A dozen quail eggs remain in a planter of elephant feed. I don’t have the heart to throw them out, in the slight chance the parents return.
In the meantime, I was so excited to have my first quail babies in our backyard. They waddled away and jumped through the fence into the wash behind our house. I hope the family returns and I get to practice taking photos of the itty bitty ones.
Have a wonderful weekend. What exciting plans do you have?
Yesterday I got some new photos of Red. He seems to have made friends with my Costco pink flamingo. But every time I’ve tried to get his photo, he flies away. Yesterday I was successful.
Red’s been super friendly. He’s no longer ignoring me like he did when I was on the knee scooter, walker or wearing the boot. I must have looked pretty scary to such a tiny guy. Now when I go outside, I hear him singing. I took the trash out and he landed a few feet away from me on the wall. I just went to our backyard to go in the pool, and he landed in the tree above our chairs, singing his heart out.
Earlier yesterday, I saw him land on a rock on the backyard. I think he was waiting for me to feed him. I opened the casita door and he flew high into the tree.
I called out to him, “Hey Red!” in a chirpy voice. I put out some “Cardinal Seed Mix” and he didn’t fly away. I was able to get some more photos while he munched. Mrs. came and joined him, but she stayed in the shade and her photos were too dark to fix with Photoshop.
One of my lunch bunch friends who I worked with 30 years ago in Palm Springs asked why Red always faces left. I hadn’t noticed, but she’s a graphic designer and probably more in tune to things like that than I am.
I’m learning Photoshop for my photography workshop that starts in the fall. So I used PS to flip Red to the right!
A few more visitors this week:
A Desert Spiny Lizard doing pushups on the rock.
A Harris’s Hawk landed on the fence yesterday. I pounded on the window to get him to take off. I really wanted a photo of him in flight. But no luck!
I loved how this quail kept watch over his family. His wife and a baby are below him. There were three other babies who were very bold and not close to his watch but mingling with doves.
One of the bold babies.
Red and Mrs. have been visiting each day, but not at the same time. I’m waiting to see some fledglings.
Mrs. enjoying some birdseed. Thanks to photographer Bushboy, I did return to a mix of birdseed rather than using straight sunflower seeds. He warned that sunflower seeds are not as healthy for my bird buddies. But it seems Red and Mrs. pick out the sunflower seeds from the mix.
Red with a sunflower seed.
Not a bird buddy, but a Desert Spiny Lizard found a bit of shade next to a planter.
