Dead or Alive?

< catching up on a couple of blips >

I was watching this Gila woodpecker walk between these two  Gambel's Quail for a while.  I saw him stand next to the dad (on the right) and look hither and yon.

Suddenly, he laid flat down on the wall as if playing dead! Did he perceive the quail to be a threat to him?  It would have been an instinctive reaction had that been true. An attack of low blood sugar? The quail eventually hopped down into the next yard and the woodpecker got up and flew away.

It was the oddest thing I had ever witnessed.

I am going to have trouble with the photos that I need to catch up on and through the weekend.  I can barely see my computer.  My glasses are broken and the earliest I can do anything about them will be Monday.  So please excuse focusing problems or typos from now through then.  Thanks.