Baby quail

July 21, 2011
We were starting to wonder if we'd ever have any baby quail this year. Typically by July, we've seen at least two or three batches of babies but this year we hadn't seen any. I was almost convinced our wet spring had forced our quail friends to find drier ground in some other neighborhood. Or worse.

Tonight I startled a momma quail by the sprinklers. When she didn't run off right away, I knew she must have babies hiding somewhere. But I only found this little guy. A tiny feather ball, scared and confused. I just happened to have my camera and perched myself on the ground next to our pine tree to get a picture of him. He must have sensed I myself am a momma, because the next thing I knew, he had scampered right up to me. I kept moving back, hoping he would turn and run the other way towards his mom but he'd have none of that. I must ooze safety for baby quails because he climbed up on my foot and then hopped up in my hand. This isn't my favorite picture of the little guy, but it shows you just how tiny baby quails are. You can't even tell they are in your hands they are so light.

By this time Cole had decided he needed some attention from me. And since Cole loves animals, I showed him our tiny friend. Cole started squealing "da da da da" and pointing, trying to grab at the baby quail in my hands. I couldn't see any angry momma quail sitting on our fence and started to worry I had scared her off for good. But every time I put the baby quail down, he'd run back over towards me. He sat in the grass too wet from the sprinkler hitting him to move so I picked him up again and put him in the flower bed. The thought did cross my mind at one point, I'm getting up with Cole all night long anyway, what's another mouth (or in this case, beak) to feed every two hours?

But I'm not that crazy.

So I took him over to the garden, next to our neighbor's fence. The quail usually make their nests next door so I figured my heroic efforts would give him the best chance of survival. I sure hope he found his momma.