A quail family sets up housekeeping in our garden

One of the unexpected benefits of backyard gardening is that it provides an attractive habitat for wildlife. Once, a hummingbird built its nest about five feet from the ground in an orange tree, and we watched the eggs hatch and two tiny babies grow up and fly away. Many times when I go outside in the evening, a particular one will fly right up to me as if to say hello, and I imagine it is one of those babies I watched grow up.

 Today when I walked outside to pick peppers and tomatoes, I heard high-pitched baby bird sounds followed by an urgent, lower-pitched parental warning. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a mama quail leading her babies, which appeared to be quite young, to safety beneath some asparagus ferns in one of our raised beds. You can see Papa Quail keeping watch in the picture above on some tree stakes that used to hold an orchid tree in place. (The orchid tree was killed to the ground in last winter's frost, but that's another story)

The picture below shows both parents in another part of the yard. They've been diligent in their efforts to distract me from where their babies are hidden, and they're hidden well enough that I haven't been able to get a picture yet. When I walked out to the gazebo to prune back the snail vine which was daring to creep over the block wall into HOA territory, I ran into the entire quail family. I think maybe the parents had taken their babies to the streambed for a drink. Mama Quail quickly hustled her brood into the dense growth at the bottom of the honeysuckle vines, and then both parents started loudly vocalizing in attempts to lead me away from where the babies were hiding. The babies were very quiet, and the parents very determined.

Sometimes I think human beings could take lessons in family living from creatures like these. I like the way Mama and Papa Quail work together to nurture and protect their brood, and the parents seem to put their parenting duties ahead of other priorities, even their own safety. Not to mention the fact that the babies apparently do what their parents tell them to do, or not do....