California Quails Pay a Visit

In early July we were fortunate to have a couple of California Quail families visit us in our backyard. I never saw them nesting in the yard but we do have some large shrubs near the fence so they may have been hidden behind those. At any rate check out the images I was able to get of the parents and the little ones running around our backyard.

A male Quail on the fence top keeping a watchful eye over his family.

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The first family to visit seemed to only have a mamma to keep track of the 7-8 little ones running around.

No dad on the fence top keeping an eye out for her.

They were quite active and were moving all over the backyard.

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I initially spotted movement around the shrubs and edge of the grass as I was looking out the kitchen window.

It took a bit for my mind to put together that it was a mamma and her babies foraging through the yard. 😃

They moved around so quickly that I was never really able to get an accurate count of how many babies there were.

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Eventually mom organized the little ones and they made a dash to a spot in the fence where they could get under.

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Above are several shots of them making their way along the fence. The babies are very well camouflaged so they can be hard to see without zooming in. They are also very quick little birds so a few of them are a little blurry as they scurry. 🤣

With escape eminent it was time for me to make sure my cat wasn't on the other side of that gap waiting to pounce on them.

A short video of mom and babies heading toward the exit.

A few days later we got another visit from a different family. This time I was alerted to their presence by looking out the window and seeing/hearing a male on the fence top.

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I saw the female on the ground but still could not see any of the babies.

I was pretty sure their were some there as the father kept up his vigil on the fence top and continued verbalizing his warnings to the brood below.

Eventually I finally caught a glimpse of a young one scurrying across the ground. Again, they blend in very well with the terrain.

When the babies got split up on either side of the raised garden bed...

Dad came down to give mom a hand rounding them up.

I counted eleven youngsters running around. A real handful for mom and dad to keep an eye on. 😄

As with last time, mom decided it was time to leave and the family made their way to exit the backyard.

I felt fortunate to have been able to witness not one but two different Quail families visit my back yard.🙂

Video of mom and her babies foraging in the backyard.

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Please feel free to make comments or ask me any questions about this post.

Photos taken by me, @oldmans, with a Nikon D3300 and some Lightroom post processing.
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Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!