RIP Blork

We sadly have to report that we have lost our beautiful Blork. All had been well for a long time when we noticed a small clump of bloodied feathers on the ground near the door to the enclosure. We looked around, but there was nothing else. Many of the birds are squabbling, so we decided it was just a slightly more epic fight than we usually have - until we found more feathers. We immediately feared another rat had got in, and diligently searched the entire perimeter - no holes, no dead birds (we have always found bits of birds after rat attacks). Chloe noticed a feather drifting down from the top of the net, but there were no holes in the roof, so we put it down to normal moulting and a windy day...
We were worried though, and did a head-check count of all our birds. Snowpea and Blork could not be found. Blork, when we last saw her, had a slightly damaged eye, probably from fighting off an amorous male.
I don't know why Seb climbed onto the shed roof, but he did, and there were more feathers. I went up, and there she was (or wasn't, all that was left was a leg and her wings!). She'd been eaten - through the net - by a hawk. We think she flew up onto the shed roof, which is about a metre below the top of the net, and, probably while hesitating and a bit confused about where she was, she was seen and taken. There was no hole in the net, but it would be very easy for a raptor to strike and reach her through the net at that distance.
Poor lovely girl!
So now we are back to square one, with too many males...
Let's hope the latest broods survive and am dominated by females!

Comings and goings

We've had a lot of girls sitting over Spring and into Summer, so finding a little clutch of warm eggs is becoming commonplace. This nest is Snowpea's latest brood - or so we thought...

Here is Spock, sneaking onto the nest, laying her own egg and attempting to roll Snowpea's eggs out!

 

Spock taking advantage of the situation

 Snowpea wasn't having any of Spock's takeover attempt however - as soon as Spock finished laying, Snowpea returned to her nest, pushed her eggs back into position and fluffed back over them. We know the birds often have communal nests, but it is rare that one will continue to lay in a shared nest once the sitting mother is in place.

Snowpea back in place

 There's been quite a bit of change in recent weeks - five birds (three boys and two girls) have gone to live with young William and his sister Brooke, on the Tasman Peninsula. William wanted a quail for his birthday - and got a small flock! We hope they'll all be happy together.

Back in our garden, Spock's little chick is growing into a very handsome male. We've called him Fedderdix.

Fedderdix surveying his domain - the grapes are coming along nicely...

"I am quail...hear me call!"

 After selling five birds, we also did a swap - giving two of our girls in return for...Mr Frizzles. We're hoping he'll bring a new bloodline to our flock. He's certainly trying his best to get to know all the girls! He has lovely markings, and is very friendly, having been hand-reared. He also has a club-foot, which makes him a bit ungainly, but doesn't seem to worry him at all.

Introducing...Mr Frizzles!

At full stretch - mid dust bath!

And back to Snowpea

Our super-mum, Snowpea, has hatched her fourth brood! Six little babies, all doing beautifully - until this morning - when there were only five. Snowpea defends them fiercely, and hunts for food all day long, but I can only imagine one either got lost (and froze overnight) or was attacked and killed by another bird. The tiny chicks do get confused as to which quail is mum, if there are too many around.

Anyway, they are gorgeous, and enjoying all the insects that show up when we tackle our overgrown weed patches...

"This is a jackjumper ant, kids - they bite, so eat it quickly."

Snowpea and the three greediest chicks who stay close by...you can just see their wing feathers starting to sprout.

"Ooh mum, I can't eat that - yuk!"

"If you just wait, it'll come out again any minute now..."

"I know there's something good under here."

Muddled Melon!

Remember Melon? She was abandoned by her mother - Snowpea - at an early age, but refused to completely leave her, and ended up co-parenting Snowpea's next hatch of eight (who all survived). This time, Melon was sitting on her own 10 eggs. We had high hopes for her, as Snowpea is our best mother, and we thought Melon might have learned all the tricks for successfully raising a family. Mmm...
It seems that once her first chick hatched, Melon got over-excited. I found 6 eggs rolled out of the nest (unhatched) and three left in the nest (unhatched), and Melon happily finding food for one single, solitary chick...
Sigh.
Now things get complicated.
We have:
One baby from Spock
Three babies from Blork
One baby from Melon

Melon's single chick...an only child

Spock's chick decided that, despite her disinterest, he wasn't ready to leave home, and determinedly followed her around for a week or two, snuggling up beside her at night, and generally keeping her company. He would give the plaintive cheep of a lost chick, and she would never respond, but he seemed to find her anyway.

Melon's chick - with foster-brother (or sister)!

Blork's babies were also lonely, and cheeping - and ignored by Blork. However, as the age difference wasn't so great - maybe a week - they quickly discovered that Melon was a much more attentive mother - and they have joined her and her single chick! We were worried that they might attack their younger foster-sibling...but they don't. In fact, they seem to have encouraged it to mature faster - given that it has to compete for food - it's become very speedy and confident, and sleeps at night huddled up with Melon and the three others - who are too big to get under her wings - although they did try at first...
Now they are pretty much independent, with Melon mostly ignoring them - and it is the foster-family who come running when the little one squeaks for company.
Life in the garden is never simple with these birds!

Blork's baby blues...

Meanwhile, while Spock's one surviving chick struggled on, Blork hatched seven new babies. The weather was good at first, and we thought this lot would do better than all the others who'd had to contend with the wettest, coldest Spring we'd had in years. But it was not to be. The rain came back, and one morning I came home to find five weak and freezing babies, desperately trying to catch up to their mother, who had come over for seeds and mealworms.  The sixth was dead, and the seventh had disappeared. Three fell over, and couldn't get up - one was barely able to move. I hastily gathered up Blork and two wet chicks and put them into our small cage, where she settled down to eat. I went back for the other three - and one was dead. I took the last two up to the house - one was in a very bad way and I doubted he would survive. I gave them to the kids to hold by the heater, and rushed back down to the garden to check on the others with their mum. Alas, in the time I'd taken to get to the house, one was dead. It was so quick - but it seems that once they get cold, they weaken incredibly fast. The one was huddled underneath their mother. Incredibly, both the chicks we warmed in the house recovered, and were put into the small cage. They all made it through the night, and are now about 3 weeks old.

Blork's brood - before the bad weather hit...

Happy mum providing a bit of cover

Spock's sad saga

Sometimes raising quail can be slightly traumatic - especially if you are soft-hearted and prone to worrying about hatchlings as if they were your own kids...
Spock finally hatched three little babies - one of which was all white (pale yellow). This one, naturally, was the kids' favourite - and the first to die. It lasted about four days, looking healthy - until one day it just wasn't healthy any more, and faded away. We don't know why. Natural selection - but the grief was strong as we all really wanted some variation in colour - all bar two of our birds are the standard Coturnix light brown patterning (Pharoah markings, I think) and well nigh impossible to tell apart! The remaining two seemed strong and happy - one was much bigger than the other, and we feared for the smaller one. Spock was a slightly indifferent mother, and refused to share her mealworms - whenever we gave her some she would scoff them immediately and never offer them to her chicks. Every other mother quail has given most of the mealworms to her babies...
Snowpea's four chicks - now about 8 weeks old  - formed a gang of four and terrorised Spock's two little ones. On one occasion I rescued the smaller hatchling which had been grabbed by the neck by one of the older gang, who was shaking it violently, while the others pecked at it. Horrid. None of the adult birds took much notice of the two babies - only the immature birds seemed to hunt them. The little one really struggled - whenever it got cold it collapsed on the ground, unable to move. Spock never seemed particularly concerned, and we kept finding it, cold and feebly chirping. We'd put it in a small cage with Spock overnight, and it would recover. This happened twice. Eventually Spock seemed to abandon any pretense at mothering. 

Spock - a beautiful girl, but lacking the mothering instinct!

 A few days later the smaller chick died, very suddenly - after having survived numerous near-death experiences. More grief.
Sadly, we have no photos of either of the two little ones...but there is one chick remaining - of which more will be told later!

The kids had a funeral for the little chick...

Brooding...

Spock's eggs still have not hatched...
How long should we wait before giving up??
We have built shelters over Melon and over Blork, so we currently have three girls sitting, comfortably sheltered from the wild weather and relentless rain. Naturally, after building the shelters, today we actually have some sunshine - albeit intermittently - and all the birds are sun-bathing, stretched out luxuriously in the warmth. The mums-to-be rush out from under cover, take a hurried dust bath, and return to their eggs. More rain due this afternoon.
Of Snowpea's brood of four, at least one is definitely a male, and another looks decidedly female - but then, until she started laying, we thought Spock was a boy.
We will give her another two or three days, and then break an egg to check what is happening.

Broody girls saga continues

Well, today Spock's eggs are due to hatch,, if all things are equal. When I went to check this morning Blork's nest was waterlogged and her eggs cold... She is not under shelter and we had over 17mm of rain last night! Poor old thing - I suspect her eggs may not make it. We will take a few and break them today to check progress, but I am certain this cycle of warming and cooling cannot be good.

However, back to Spock. She was off her eggs when I came into the garden, but they were still warm, so I fed her and assumed she would return as she usually does. I came back to the garden a couple of hours later, and she was off again, flying around in little leaps and hops, which is unusual behaviour for her. I wondered if her babies had hatched, and she was scared of them (anything is possible!) so I went to check. No hatching - but Melon was sitting on them! She left the nest as I bent down to look at her, and Spock came up immediately. Melon rushed at her and drove her away, returning to the eggs. Extraordinary behaviour. Spock hunted for a few worms in the waterlogged soil, but every time she came near the nest Melon fluffed up and gave a harsh, aggressive call, and Spock retreated. I kept telling myself "don't interfere" but Spock is thin and tired and has been devotedly sitting for nearly three weeks - it just didn't seem fair for Melon to take over at the last minute. I also worried that if the eggs hatch on schedule, Melon will get a shock (after sitting for such a short time her "broody hormones" cannot be ready to deal with chicks) and she will abandon the babies... So I shooed her off and Spock returned immediately. When I left Spock was angrily calling and attempting to protect her nest against repeated feints by Melon, who was remarkably persistent.
Melon was the quail who sat on the nest WITH Snowpea, when Snowpea hatched her second brood, and co-parented the chicks. Definitely an unusual bird.

Has anyone had experience of anything like this??? We'd love to hear from you if you have!

Broody girls update

Well, Greenpea seemed to completely lose interest in her eggs today, so we took them all. It was depressing seeing the little clutch lying there cold and abandoned. She hasn't been back to the nest since. We opened some of the eggs - the little blot that shows they are fertile has got a bit bigger, but that's all.  We were dreading finding a tiny chick - but she'd only been half-sitting a few days...
Hopefully she will sit again in a few weeks; more successfully this time!
We have worked out that the birds who have raised chicks, and are sitting now, are all of an older generation than Greenpea and Chickpea - so they may simply be too young.

Too many broody girls!

The season of burgeoning new life...

Help! It looks very much as if one broody quail sets off all the others - but some are better natural mothers... Last week we discovered three separate nests - not including Spock, whose chicks are due to hatch in the next couple of days. Each new nest had around 10 eggs in it...

Blork's very neat nest in the middle of a patch of chives

We watched them for a while, and Greenpea, Chickpea and Blork all settled in and looked to be sitting. However, they didn't quite have it worked out. Greenpea's nest was the most exposed to the wild Spring weather, so we built a shelter over her - as we've done for many others previously. She'd only just started sitting that day, and the shelter construction seemed to worry her. It took her a long time to return to her nest, but eventually she seemed to have settled again.

Greenpea's nest under newly constructed shelter

 Our three sitters, however, were all off their nests the next morning - and the eggs were stone cold. After their morning meal, they all returned to sitting. The next day - no-one was on their nest in the morning - and the eggs were cold again. After some discussion, we removed all Chickpea's eggs. Of the three, she was the only one who did not sit for most of the day, and seemed a bit half-hearted about the process.

Blork sitting - spreading to cover 10 eggs!

Greenpea and Blork appeared to be a bit more determined.
Now, unfortunately, we are worried about the effect from sitting all day, and leaving the eggs to cool overnight, which is what Greenpea appears to be doing.

 

Fog calling for his girls!

Chickpea had a few days looking a bit distracted and out-of-sorts - but she never went near her nest again, so we think she wasn't really ready to sit. Hopefully she will lay more and go broody properly later in the summer.

Blork has settled fully and - apart from being driven off her nest occasionally by Apricot - is doing well. We are very uncertain about Greenpea though. Should we take her eggs? Should we leave her alone and assume she will work it out? Does continual heating and cooling stop embryos developing - or cause birth defects? Does anyone know?

"Who, me?" Apricot being scolded for disturbing Blork...

If you have enjoyed this blog and would like to share your experiences with quail, we'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment, and we look forward to learning more about other people's adventures with these lovely little birds.

Day 15...growing up and leaving home

Snowpea enjoying some child-free time...

At around two weeks, Snowpea completely lost interest in her little ones, leaving them to fend for themselves.
They now sleep huddled together in the nesting box, and forage through the garden showing absolutely no need of their mother... Snowpea eats as if she is making up for long weeks of starvation - which I think she is.

Tug-o-war (the worm won!)

They are still tiny, with scrawny feathers, looking particularly scruffy and unkempt. One at least is developing a clearly spotted breast - hopefully she is female! Three are very quick, finding insects and seeds very easily - the fourth seems a bit 'head-in-the-clouds' and wanders vaguely, occasionally peeping loudly when it looks up and discovers the others are miles away. It doesn't really care whether they respond or not, and we rarely see it hunting insects - it's a definite dreamer. When we offer meal-worms it is always the last to realise what is happening.

Please let our four little chicks all be girls!

"Has anyone seen my friends?"

Another few weeks and we should know which are males and which are females. They are all have  the classic Coturnix markings - we were hoping for some variety, but no such luck. We will have to use leg bands again, to tell them apart.
If you have enjoyed this blog and would like to share your experiences with quail, we'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment, and we look forward to learning more about other people's adventures with these lovely little birds.

Day 8...

Our four little hatchlings are becoming fledglings - tiny stubs of wing feathers are sprouting and the chicks are getting increasingly independent. They give little jumping flights, and tackle giant worms - the ground is still so waterlogged there is no shortage of slugs and worms for them to eat. The weather has improved (slightly), the sun comes out on occasion - although at this minute it is hailing outside!

There are actually 3 chicks standing tucked up against mum here...and one out the back!

First wing feathers coming through

 Snowpea calls to them constantly, in a low soft cheeping, which changes slightly when she has a meal-worm or other insect for them. This food call is very similar to the call the males give when they are offering food to a female - they seem to do this as part of their mating ritual. When the female accepts the food, the male mates with her. When Snowpea gives her food call, the chicks come running immediately. The other call seems to be just a way of letting them know where she is - the chicks also call softly most of the time. When one of the chicks is lost - or being held for too long - it starts a loud and rapid cheeping, which in turn, brings Snowpea running.

Exploring the wide world

The chicks are ridiculously cute, and thankfully, they have learnt to keep away from our feet, greatly lessening the risk of being accidentally trodden on - which makes it much more relaxing to stay in the garden and watch them - when the weather is kind. I think it has been one of the wettest (and windiest) starts to Spring in a long time.



Seeds!

Spock is still sitting and the boys are getting a bit fed up with two of their females out of circulation - Snowpea still drives them away viciously if they come anywhere near her - none of the males pay any attention to the babies.



Fog...checking out what's happening in his domain

Stalking a hapless dandelion...

Plum...hoping for a mate

Plum still calls for a lady-companion, to no avail - we are hoping to find him a mate, but it's proving difficult. It's incredible he has survived so long when all of his girls (three!) have been taken by rats...



If you have enjoyed this blog and would like to share your experiences with quail, we'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment, and we look forward to learning more about other people's adventures with these lovely little birds.

Sitting Spock

Spock has been sitting for over a week now.

Spock grabbing a quick snack

We have built a weather-shelter over her nest to protect her from the worst of the rain and the wind. She looks very cosy. Interestingly, she took over the nest only after we had rebuilt it... The original nest had four eggs, and no sitting bird, and was completely waterlogged after all our heavy rain. Spock had been unusually aggressive with the others, and we suspected she may have been tending towards broodiness, so we took away the soggy grass, lined the mud with new grass, added dry straw, and replaced the eggs. They stayed cold and lonely for a few days, then the clutch was added to, and once it reached 6, Spock moved in.
She only comes off twice a day to gobble down meal-worms and seeds before racing back to her eggs. She looks as if she will be a good mother, judging by her devotion to her eggs. Unlike Snowpea, she doesn't let us feed her on or near her nest but rushes off as soon as we approach. She then chases off any other nearby bird with the harsh angry call that all the broody birds seem to do.

Spock snug in her shelter

We were worried about a possible lack of fertility in her eggs, as we have never seen any of our males with her at any time. She is at the bottom of the pecking order, and is bullied by all the other birds. We think, but we can't be sure, that it is because she looks different - she is our only bird with "tuxedo" markings (dark brown with white patches).

When she started sitting we feared that she would work hard for three weeks with nothing to show for it, so we replaced one of her eggs with two laid by one of the other girls. (Thankfully she didn't reject them. We felt a little bad putting two cold eggs in her nice warm nest, but as she had only started sitting that day we hope there isn't too much of a time lag between the original eggs and the new additions). We broke open one of hers to look for the little bullseye mark that means the egg is fertile. It was there! Yay! The males must be doing their job, despite us never seeing them...

 

Waiting

We're still not totally convinced but we will just have to wait and see.

Day 3...

After the extremely wild weather Snowpea is down to four babies. We found one little cold wet body in the grass this morning and two are still missing. We have decided that if the weather doesn't improve we will have to put them in a smaller cage at night. They are just too tiny to withstand the freezing cold and the wind, despite Snowpea's bests efforts to keep them all together. We are grieving today - but, in much better news - Spock is sitting on eight eggs!!! Photos to follow...

Day 2...

Spring is here, but winter is refusing to be done with - we had snow on the mountain this morning and the garden has been hammered by wild winds and heavy rain all day... We fear for Snowpea's tiny chicks - there are huge deep puddles everywhere and it is COLD. She had them all snuggled in the straw in one of our rarely-used nesting boxes for much of the worst weather, but this evening she was out and about and we could only count 6 little ones...
She has hatched her clutch so early in the year - I really, really hope they are all safely underneath her tonight and we find them well in the morning.

Day 1...

Digesting a surprisingly large caterpillar!

Enjoying a moment of sunshine

The family - mum on watch

New babies!!

Snowpea had refused to leave her nest for the last two days.


It was a wet and windy night.


In the morning, we found...

Seven from eight eggs - looking fluffy and beautiful despite rain and wind all night...

This is Snowpea's third clutch of hatchlings! She is a legendary mother - now we just have to keep them safe from the dreaded rats.

Proud mother

 They are all surprisingly dry and warm, even in the rain. Only an hour or so old, they already leave their mother and wander around, looking for food and exploring their grassy nest area.

There is one egg still unhatched, and Snowpea appears to be staying put, as in previous seasons she moved away from the broken eggs quite quickly. We may yet get eight chicks!



 We have had to move one of our males (Fog) into a smaller enclosure on his own, as he - out of all the males - knew where Snowpea was sitting, and was determinedly paying her visits. She flies at him and attacks him, sending her chicks scattering in all directions. We decided it wasn't worth the risk of any the babies getting accidentally trampled...and took him away.

Maybe one more chick to arrive...

Fog in solitary confinement

Few hours old at most...ahhhh

Broody behaviour

Ground can't hold any more water...!

It's been raining like mad here, but our little mother Snowpea is still heroically sitting on her eggs despite over 40mm of rain in less than 24 hours - luckily she is on relatively high ground, or she would be under water.

Snowpea: "here I sit and here I stay"

Last year we put up temporary shelters around the nests so the sitting birds would stay dry, but this year Snowpea has chosen a nest site pressed up tight against the net, and we can't put anything around her to protect her. She's gone broody very early in the season, so the weather is still quite unsettled. We're a bit worried she'll catch cold, but we are feeding her extra meal-worms, as well as grains and a bit of vitamin powder in her drinking water. We'll just have to see how it goes. We think she has another week, or a bit more, before hatching. Last year all our chicks hatched at 17-18 days, but we don't know exactly when Snowpea started sitting.
She is still super-aggressive with all the other birds, whenever she comes off the nest to eat, and gives a strange guttural "chuck-chuck" call while flying at anyone who comes near, and pecking at them viciously.

Bald patches on Melon's head...we think Fog has been exercising his conjugal rights too frequently

We have a second nest in a clump of grass, being slowly filled with eggs, but we suspect it may be a communal nest, and none of the other birds are yet broody. It's hard to tell. Melon was showing some signs of broody behaviour, but the weather may have stopped her sitting. Melon co-parented with Snowpea last year, with the two of them successfully raising all Snowpea's chicks together, in a pattern of shared parenting we'd never heard of before.
Melon has paired off with one of our remaining males - Fog - and the two of them appeared to have made the nest, and were always close by, but we could never actually catch her laying. Eggs appeared, first 2, 3, 4, then a wait, then there were 6, then 8, and now 11. We think another bird is laying there as well. Melon has become quite aggressive, and solitary, and we thought sitting might be imminent. Then the rain started - and the nest is very low-lying - at one point some of the eggs were floating!

Melon doing her best to keep all her 11 eggs together...but failing.

Today we checked again and Melon was doing her best to sit, but 11 eggs were too much for her, some were knocked out and rolled down the slope whenever she fluffed up and changed position. When we touched them all were cold - despite her sitting on them - and the nest itself was soaking wet - the eggs were lying on wet soil, and she couldn't get them warm. So after some debate, we collected them all. We hope she'll make another nest in a better location, and start again...

Quail egg omelette for dinner tonight