California Quail

Once a day this family makes its way through the rocks on our hill and down the steps to see what's on offer beneath the bird feeders. At some point during the day, they reverse the process,  climbing the steps, crossing the rocks and disappearing from whence they came.

When they were just tiny fluff balls, the babies would still hurl themselves off the edge of the steps with careless abandon while the male parent stood sentinel, turning his head this way and that as they made their way through the open spaces, and the female shepherded her charges along. There are hawks and ravens, not to mention cats and foxes amongst the predators around here, so their precautions are well founded, and the little brood of ten has stayed intact and thrived. 

Today we watched as the babies, almost as big as their parents now, scratched around in the dust and settled down in the sun for a little rest while the parents both kept watch. The mother is bringing up the rear in this picture,  her markings standing out even in the shadows. The babies will remain rock colored, providing a very effective camouflage, until they are able to fend for themselves. Can you count all ten babies?

We always know when the family is making this little promenade because the father stands sentry on a taller rock or a fencepost. I couldn't get him into the picture today but he was, as always, very vigilant.

I am being very vigilant to make sure that at least a little bit of the bamboo remains standing so that we have a little shade. OilMan is tackling the shoots that have come up in the neighbors' field or crawled under the fence. Despite its small area we have already sent three loads to the dump with Jorge. Not even the county dump will take either bamboo or formium for it's compost program, so we're trying to use as much bamboo as we can for trellises and tomato and bean plant supports, There's a pile of tall stalks in the driveway available for anyone who wants to come pick it up....

There's a huge fermium plant out there which we have decided to leave for now, continuing to cut off the giant stalks that reach across the pavement or into the hot tub....

It seems my least favorite plants are the wildly successful ones...most of them involving stickers, thorns and sharp edges. Maybe it's just a case of liking better that which you can't have....