Sharing a home with quail families

When the first families of baby quail appear, it is the beginning of the most active period here in the desert for these beautiful birds. It's heart-warming to watch mom and dad and the newly hatched taking their first venture beyond the nest.

Parents demonstrate exaggerated scratch and peck to get the kids foraging when they are not much larger than a golf ball. With up to fifteen babies at once, they always look harried, but never fail to discipline wanderers.

Baby quail are born running. Never has something so small been so quick to flee danger. They are forever watching the skies for shadows of birds of prey. Fathers stand guard from high places. They scan for house cats or snakes waiting in the trailside brush to snatch up a chick. Many of the parents were born last year or the year before right here around the house. Over time and generations they grow more numerous and tolerant of our everyday activity.

When I first moved in we rarely saw quail because no one had lived here for a few years. They were very nervous and remained skittish most of the time.

Then we put out our first water for the wild things during the summer since Little Morongo canyon ceased its perennial flow due to drought. The quail have been here ever since, growing into a large covey of over 50. During the winter and very early spring the quail come together for breeding when everyone is in the same milieu. Then they pair up and gradually drift off into the brush outside our dog fence line to find their homes beneath protective cactus and very dense wild shrubs where it’s shady and out of sight of raptors. All are scarce until the babies are large enough to travel and start the learning process of finding food and water.

The covey chose our one California palm for roosting safely all year. They love the dense skirt of old fronds raising a ruckus at dusk as each flies up to enter at the top. Then in the morning much rustling and squawking informs us they're back to Earth with the rising sun.

This demonstrates that you can indeed cultivate wildlife by providing the things they need in the toughest seasons. There's no need for anything fancy to lure them in. I use large terra cotta pot saucers that are cheap and easily replaceable, placing one under a faucet where it is easily filled each day. Often I refill and noon and again in the evening during this busy season where some late couples are still sitting on eggs and come in just once to feed.

These shallow saucers are my favorite for baby quail to avoid the risk from deeper water containers while still so young. The "golf balls" can easily access and even sit in the water to cool off before they move on. I have noticed that many families come to water around midday when the sun is overhead so their shadows are not so easily spotted by raptors in morning and evening light.

I also changed the way I provide bird seed since this time of year the chipmunks, ground squirrels and rabbits are keen on decimating piled seed. To make sure there is plenty left for the babies I scatter seed lighter but more widely around the water area. That way young families with babies can find food while approaching and leaving in a group.

This strategy has proven quite successful for both the quail and many other migratory birds. Gold and black orioles summer here in Morongo Valley, also nesting in our palm. This incredibly bright tropical looking bird that is so shy it's hard to photograph without a huge lens, but they are so vibrantly colored they are a striking stand out.

When we fill our gardens with native desert plants that are recognized by these birds, they will flock to your home briefly. If you give them water, they'll come every day. Give them seed and they will hang around, have babies and enjoy all the joy of resort living along with you for many generations to come.