New Residents

Mrs. Quail sits under the canopy of a lettuce plant.

Quails don't walk slowly when they know I am in the garden.  They fly away.  When I saw Mrs. Quail walk quietly away from the vegetable garden, I knew she was hiding something in there.  Like discovering some treasure, I found ten speckled eggs nestled under the ruffled lettuce leaves. 

We have been gone away for a long time this summer.  Mr. and Mrs. Quail decided that the garden was a promising place to raise a family.  Here they found food, water, and shelter. 

Ten tiny speckled eggs.

A few years ago, we had another quail nest in a pot of ivy geranium.  My children looked at the mother quail sit there every day.  Then one day, all they saw were egg shells.   My kids were very sad.  However, a few days later, we saw a family of quail with twelve chicks cross the lawn in a single file.  They were so cute!

This time my younger daughter visits Mrs. Quail every morning.  She hopes to be able to see the chicks when they hatch and before they leave their nest. 

Planting of the next vegetable crop will be delayed until the eggs are hatched.