Quail surprises

[Carma Sue Henry]

Our Quail family from last summer - the first since we moved here in Aug 2017, had disappeared completely by earlier this summer, having dwindled from the adult pair and 14 youngsters to one overwintering adult pair.  Early this summer, just as we thought the adults should be getting ready to nest again, a second male appeared and, over the next few days, there was a lot of calling between the three.  Soon after that all three we suddenly gone.  We kept watching out for them for several weeks until we sadly concluded that they would not return.  Perhaps the one female had been lured away or become a hawk's meal.  All we could do was speculate.  The summer went on without our treasured Quail as our friend further west on the ridge regaled us with stories of the huge flock in his backyard where he said he once counted over 50 chicks.  He's lived there for 30 years and has had these beautiful birds every year.

About a week ago a family of Quail with nearly grown juvies appeared quite out of the blue; 2 adult males, 1 female and about 10 young.  They seemed to make themselves right at home and Steve accommodated by increasing the amount of seed he tosses onto the lawn.  We hope that this might be our mated pair from last summer who have accepted the second male as a co-parent.  Even with a Bobcat around they are spending a lot of the day moving from foraging the lawn to taking dust baths on the gravel slope, hiding in the weed/daisy patch and roosting in the blackberries and dead Douglas fir snags.

Today we had still another group come in.  It is 5-6 adult males, 2-3 adult females and no young.  When we first saw them it was quite a puzzle.  Could these be members of last year's family, still hanging out together? 

The real surprise came after this new group had been feeding for a while.  A single adult male came onto the lawn and started chasing the males from the new group.  With several attacks he successfully chased off the newbies, sending some in retreat up the slope and others taking refuge in the weeds.  His own family then quickly moved out onto the lawn, taking over.  The new mixed adults regrouped up on the slope, watching the young family forage.

I missed recording the chase scenes, which would have been a lot of fun.  The vid here pans from some the young family up to the adults who have retreated uphill.

Carma