Californian Quails

We've been visited this weekend by a family of Californian Quails.



We’ve seen the male and female quails a number of times. They’re quite odd little birds – they can fly but prefer to walk or, more often, run. The male has a feathery topknot which dangles in front of his beak as he dashes about. And the female is quite plain in comparison. But we first saw them with their chicks last weekend.

The mother took the lead with a line of about eight chicks behind her and the father brought up the rear, keeping a close eye for danger (us). They kept close to the edge of the lawn, not far from cover, and acted with almost military precision. The mother stood to one side when they reached their destination and allowed her speckled chicks to climb into the long grass first whilst the father stood back on guard.

I guess that their nest is no more than 20 feet from the house, just in the wildflower meadow at the edge of the cut grass, but I won’t go to inspect until the chicks have flown the nest.