This morning Cindy spotted a California Quail under our back yard bird feeder. I used to see these handsome birds up in Northern California, but we hadn't seen any here in San Diego until this morning.
Considering that the California Quail generally prefer scrub as their habitat and that they can frequently be found where there's birdseed a ground level, it's a bit surprising that they haven't found our feeder before this. The House Finches in particular seem to spit out more seed than they actually eat, so the ground beneath the feeder is usually covered with seed, for the benefit of the thrashers, the towhees, the squirrels, and now the quail.
Unfortunately, this quail is pretty shy and I haven't been able to get a picture of it yet, but plenty of information about it can be found at: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Quail/lifehistory#at_habitat .
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I can't wait to see a photo of the quail. I went for a long walk the other day in an area called Water Valley and saw western meadowlarks (does any other bird sing so sweetly?), mountain bluebirds (they stopped over on their return to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park), red-tailed hawks, ferruginous hawks, nesting herons, one juvie bald eagle and more robins than I could count. The big winner of the day, however, was a pheasant who flew right in front of me! Wow was that a major treat! My backyard feeders are attracting the usual house finches, a couple of early American goldfinches, junkos and sparrows, newly arrived red-winged blackbirds and Woody, who delights in swooping at AJ and driving her nuts!
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