I thought Q would be a challenging letter, but when I looked at a list of Q words, there were lots of options. What first came to mind was quiet...yep, once again I'm writing about my backyard. After being away from home, what I really appreciate is the quiet. In the backyard I can hear the rumble of the river below and, this time of year, I can usually hear the quail chattering.
We have a family of quail who live in our yard. Two years ago we found a nest in the bushes outside our bedroom window. There were over a dozen eggs and we anxiously watched for them to hatch.
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| It is difficult to tell the size of the eggs. To put it in perspective, the green plant material is blades of grass. |
All but one egg hatched. They quickly left the nest and we would watch the line of fluffy marshmallow sized chicks march across the lawn following their mother. Over the course of the season we lost a few, probably to neighborhood cats, but by the end of the summer we had nine or ten juvenile quail.
A sure sign of spring is the quail reappearing in the yard. We have a pair that are nesting under the pine tree. I'm looking forward to seeing more fluffy marshmallows running around the yard.
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One of the nicer things about spring is watching the hatching of baby birds and seeing them learning to fly.
ReplyDeleteAdorable! And I am home again after five days of being gone, happy to pick up my life and continue as usual. It's really comforting, even if I don't have a quiet back yard with water rushing by. The rain does that enough for me anyway. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've always seen the babies as walnuts.
ReplyDeleteIn any event seeing the quail hatchlings always gives me a smile.
I want YOUR backyard! I need something interesting and close, since retirement hasn't exactly gone as planned.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post so much. How neat that your backyard is so full of interesting life. I love the image of fluffy marshmallows.
ReplyDeleteVisiting from a-z. and a new follower. :)
Fluffy marshmallows, that's a great image. A nest on the ground would not last long here, we have a lot of neighborhood cats.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I too love quail. There are many of them around my neighborhood and I never tire of seeing them dart around the streets and yards. A few years ago a family of quail with six or seven babies spent a couple of days in my yard. My daughter spent hours following quietly behind them and snapping pictures. How lucky you were to have a nest in your yard. So fun to watch the babies hatch and grow.
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