Grisly quail update

Holy maroney! A moment ago I saw movement out in the bird garden—a Cooper’s hawk had trapped a quail in the corner of the fence. Her belly was ripped open. She was struggling. He stood on her for a few minutes. She continued to struggle. He took a firmer gripped, hopped once, and flew off with her in his talons.

Quails, again

There are a huge number of quails roosting here. I haven’t counted any in a systematic way, but the other evening through the window I watched 13 quails go to roost in the olive tree outside my office window. Some walked up the longer branches and others flew straight up into an overhanging branch.

In the front, several flew into the pyracantha bush (two flew ONTO the pyracantha bush, then settled down into it). And there are the usual handful or more in the dorm tree. Some of them may even be from the brood in this blurred picture from last summer.

It’s a nice, comforting feeling to know that I go to sleep at night nearly surrounded by roosting quails.

Snakes and quails

First, I haven’t done an exact head count, but there are a gazillion quails roosting in the front these days. I have definitely seen some—smaller ones—flying into the pyracantha bush to the right of the front porch as you face it (the dorm tree is on the left). I guess I’ll start thinking of the pyracantha as the dorm annex.

Second, just had to post this photo from Geezergarten yesterday. This is a beautiful Common King Snake, the exact type of snake I have around my house, and about the same size as the one (presumably) that shed its skin on my back porch on Sunday.

Some of the other students were afraid of the snakes, so we had lots of practice handling them. Me—I was thrilled. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this snake.

More from Geezergarten

At lunchtime, I took this photo of a very small desert spiny lizard sunning himself. He has such great protective coloration that you may not be able to see him:

I also photographed a very calm male Costa’s hummingbird that allowed me to point my camera within a few inches of him:

I also got a photo of a crestate barrel cactus. The crest at the top is the result of a genetic mutation.

Quick quail update: a cold front blew through two nights ago. Just at sunset I heard a big racket from the front yard and looked out to see about twenty quail  squabbling and chasing each other. Eventually they all started flying into the tree, flying out, flying into the pyracantha bush, flying out. I assume they got it all sorted out, but I didn’t see how and I didn’t get a head count.

Alien abduction

Today in Geezergarten, we got to watch a rattlesnake in the exhibit area. This was a large diamondback that had been caught in the Park and will be let go after it shows off a bit more. Our facilitator kept the snake in line with snake tongs, and you could see it was terrified. It spent almost the whole time (at least half an hour) rattling and alternately trying to escape, striking at the snake tongs, and rising up in a defensive posture as the picture shows:

I imagine that this was like an alien abduction to the rattlesnake, surrounded by a dozen giant warm-blooded creatures, repeatedly approached by one of the creatures, and menaced by an instrument that didn’t yield when he struck it. Oh, the tales he’ll have for the other rattlers. And speaking of tails, here’s a close-up showing his, striped, with an impressive set of rattles:

Tohono Chul Critters

I have attended presentations about reptiles and a captive Harris Hawk (rehabilitated, but can’t be released to the wild). Here is the hawk, Sueno:

She is a gorgeous bird.

The snake below is a hognosed snake, the one that plays dead by lying on its back:

…and a coach-whip snake. The coach-whip can grow to be nine feet long, and is fast-moving, with bubble-gum pink coloration:

And finally, a molting Gila monster, the only venomous lizard:

Geezergarten

I’m going back to school. Yesterday was my first day studying to be a docent at Tohono Chul Park (http://www.tohonochulpark.org/gardens.html), a beautiful desert botanical garden near where we live.

The training is very rigorous and time consuming—basically all day Wednesday and a few hours the rest of the week. Yesterday was my first day, and it was so much fun! I learned a few interesting things, including the fact that international taxonomy rules have changed quite a lot since I last studied zoology in the sixties. These days some experts think birds (Aves) should be a subdivision of snakes (Reptilia). I partly like that, since it acknowledges that birds descended from dinosaurs, but I also think it disses birds.

In other news… the Docent Emperor told me that the reason I saw no pack rat nests is that they live-trap and kill all packrats they find in the park. I understand, but am a little creeped out.  Above, pictures from gardens near the education center, including a cement horned toad and a very elaborate sundial.

Quick Update

It’s fall! It’s cool! The white wing doves have all gone to Mexico! The baby quails are all grown! My only remaining problem is the nectar-eating bats, which have been draining my hummer feeders nightly. But this morning the two feeders I leave out still had a little fluid in them, so I think the bats are pretty well on their way to Mexico too. Yay!

Autumnal Quail Update

Today is the first day of Fall, and the temps are peaking in the low to mid nineties, with dry air, so it’s very pleasant. The baby quails are mostly grown up now.  Some families were very successful, and raised ten or more chicks. Some of the chicks have full adult plumage (and look very handsome), while others are still sort of mottled as their adult feathers continue to come in.

The hawk shield has apparently been figured out by at least one hawk; yesterday afternoon I found a big pile of feathers under it. I think the victim was a white wing.

The dorm tree is still open for business. The other day I counted thirteen quail heading for it (I didn’t see them fly in). I also, for the first time, watched from the room behind the tree as two quails flew into the tree. As soon as they reached the branches they disappeared, except for a little movement of leaves.