{"id":924,"date":"2013-06-04T22:01:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T03:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/gazette\/2013\/06\/04\/130604-quail\/"},"modified":"2013-06-04T22:01:57","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T03:01:57","slug":"130604-quail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2013\/06\/04\/130604-quail\/","title":{"rendered":"Quelle Quail? These Quail!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This evening I noticed some shallow disturbances at random between the flagstones on the east side of our back yard, as if something had been digging or scratching. I also heard some rustling noises around the mediterranean fan palm in that vicinity. This looks like a pretty good place for something<\/i> to hide, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

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\"Photo<\/div>\n
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I decided to do a little investigative photojournalism, so I grabbed my camera and a long lens and went snooping. Here’s what I found hiding in the middle of that shrubbery.<\/div>\n
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\"Photo<\/div>\n
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OK, so it wasn’t a catamount or a lemur, things that would have generated a bit more excitement. But can you identify the type of bird?<\/div>\n
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\"Photo<\/div>\n
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It’s a scaled quail<\/a>, aka blue quail, and there were two of them under the tree. Shortly after this one ran out – in an apparent attempt to lure me after it and away from their nesting spot – another one sprang from the brush. (If you don’t have quail where you live, be sure to listen to the bird’s calls on this page<\/a>.)<\/div>\n
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I’m guessing the second bird is the female, and she was protecting something until the suspense became unbearable and she decided to flee. Sure enough, when I looked closer, I saw at least two baby quail disappear into the ground cover, too quickly to photo (and I wasn’t crass enough to paw around trying to flush them).<\/div>\n
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The female didn’t go far; she was determined to keep an eye on me.<\/div>\n
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\"Photo<\/div>\n
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The neighbors’ roofline made a perfect lookout spot, close enough to see what I was up to, but not within reach.<\/div>\n
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I decided to wait her out, and hid behind the wall next to the palm tree. Pretty soon, curiosity got the best of her.<\/div>\n
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\"Photo<\/div>\n
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She would peek over the wall, disappear for a few seconds, and reappear at a slightly different spot, all the while making note of my position. <\/div>\n
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Eventually, her patience, the 100+ degree temperature, and the swarming flies crumbled my resolve, and I retreated, while she gave me the nonchalant “I have no idea why you’d want to hang around here as there’s nothing to see, and nothing to worry me” look.<\/div>\n
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\"Photo<\/div>\n
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I walked quietly by the tree about ten minutes later and could see her hunkered down, presumably with her babies safely underneath. She didn’t stir, but I could feel the stinkeye all the way around the corner.<\/div>\n
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We’ve noticed a lot of quail this spring around the neighborhood, mostly in pairs – no full-blown coveys. I presume that the drought is driving them in from the dry pastures. They’re fun, goofy birds, and I’m glad we can offer a preserve for them for a while.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This evening I noticed some shallow disturbances at random between the flagstones on the east side of our back yard, as if something had been digging or scratching. I also heard some rustling noises around the mediterranean fan palm in that vicinity. This looks like a pretty good place for something to hide, doesn’t it? I… Continue reading Quelle Quail? These Quail!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-wildlife-birds","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}