Since I’ve missed blogging for most of the summer, but still have a lot of things to write about, I thought I’d “rewind” a few months and take up where I left off for the next couple of posts.
A pair of Scaled Quail showed up with a whole gaggle of puffballs in mid-June, much earlier than last year. As we moved into July more quail parents appeared with their offspring so we now have many teenager quail visiting the feeding station each day. The new hatchlings are always the cutest and they dutifully follow their parents around for some weeks after hatching.
First Visit to the Feeding Station
Learning How to Find Food
Moulting into Adult Plumage
Nearly Grown
Unlike last year when we had Gambel’s Quail on a regular basis, we only saw an adult pair a few times this summer. We’ve never seen young Gambel’s Quail here but assume they are reproducing somewhere nearby.
Nice to see the chicks of Scaled Quail. I watch them each year during the ‘Beetle Bash’ in your neighborhood, but here in NW Tucson we’ve only Gambel’s. They are just back with new chicks – I assume they lost one or even two earlier clutches to the drought. The rains started only last Friday here.
August 7th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Nice to see the chicks of Scaled Quail. I watch them each year during the ‘Beetle Bash’ in your neighborhood, but here in NW Tucson we’ve only Gambel’s. They are just back with new chicks – I assume they lost one or even two earlier clutches to the drought. The rains started only last Friday here.