Wish I had newer quail photos. Oh, well. A quick update. First, in the backyard, I have several families, not sure how many, ranging in size from 3 chicks to 15+. The chicks in the large family are probably junior high age by now. It’s amazing to me that the parents have managed to raise and protect so many. I’m assuming this is the family that started out with around 2 dozen hatchlings a few weeks ago.
In the front yard, my dorm tree has turned into a sort of bird concentration camp. I swear I don’t know how so many birds manage to sleep in the same fairly small space. A whole bunch of little birds—I think finches and sparrows, and some young cactus wrens, occupy the top branches. Then the quail come. One quail family, with six kids in high school, come every evening just before sunset. The chicks still aren’t very good at flying into the tree and actually landing in the branch they’re aiming for, but they all get it done. I’ve seen a couple of other lone adult birds go up there too. I haven’t spent enough time to know if there are others or not. Between the quail and the songbirds, the racket is quite impressive.
Just across the driveway, in one of the palo verdes, a family (?) of whitewings are nesting. I think it’s the mom and the two chicks she just fledged, plus another dove—maybe the father or her bff.
