Quail Explosion!

We have had a quail explosion this summer. We suspect it may be due to the fact that we don't have as many coyotes as we did a few years ago even though we see one or two periodically.

We have two species in the area, Scaled Quail and Gambrels Quail. The Scaled Quail is a mostly gray quail with white spots on their breast and wings. I had a few pictures of them in our courtyard awhile back.

The Gambrels Quail has more brown, both dark and golden brown, and they have the distinctive little topknot protruding from the tops of their heads. The picture to the left is a female Gambrels Quail.

We have seen probably up to a dozen family groups with the parents leading as few as one chick and some with up to 12 chicks in tow. It's interesting when they cross the street. One of the adults will stay in the middle of the street until all the chicks are across - kind of like a quail safety guard.

Here are some more pictures of the Gambrels Quail that were in our courtyard this morning.

An adult Gambrels with some of their chicks on the courtyard adobe wall.

The family feeding in the courtyard. We have two sunflower seed feeders for the finches. The quail, along with the doves and pigeons, are ground feeders.

An adult Gambrels searching around some of the rocks. Betty and I think they just want to get away from the kids for a few moments.

A couple of Gambrels adults in front of the rocks.

We also had a hawk around this morning, but he/she didn't stay around long enough for me to get a picture.

Today is August 8 and if your Birthday is today you share your day with: The opening of the Beijing Olympics, Roger Federer (tennis champion), Dave "The Edge" Evans (guitarist/singer - "U2"), Donny Most (comedian - Ralph on "Happy Days"), Keith Carradine (actor - "The Long Riders"), Connie Stevens (actress - "Hawaiian Eye"), Dustin Hoffman (actor - "Hook" and "The Graduate"), Mel Tillis (country singer), Esther Williams (actress/swimmer), Rory Calhoun (actor - "The Texan"), Rudi Gernreich (designer - creator of topless bathing suit), Dino De Laurentis (director - "The Bible"), and Matthew Henson (explorer - first to reach North Pole with Matthew Peary).