Plum...and family!

Our favourite tale so far this Spring involves Plum;  for so many months a lonely male piping out his plaintive cry every afternoon and evening, hoping somehow a female would come past.

Plum - lonely no longer

The happy gang of three

And finally, he got his wish.

Earlier this year we managed to find three lovely girls to join our solitary boy. They were, however, very young, and we didn't expect much to come of it, we were just pleased he had company at last. Sadly one girl had a misadventure quite quickly (possibly encountering rat poison) and we lost her. There were still two others, and the little group of three settled in nicely. They are extremely shy, and live mostly deep in a large clump of grasses, rarely venturing far.

Plum's girls

One afternoon I was weeding nearby, and became aware of unusual cheeping noises. Intrigued, I went to investigate. I found Plum, his two girls - and a tiny dark chick! I raced to the house to tell my daughter, and when we came back to the garden, my daughter found a nest and four broken eggs...
We waited for the birds to come out for food - and yes, darting around the adult birds there were indeed four chicks! They were so small, and so wary they were almost impossible to photograph. It wasn't until they were a few days old that we finally managed a picture - and it's not very good.

A proud father, with first chick!

It's now been nearly nearly three weeks, and the family are thriving. Plum has been an exemplary father, constantly finding food for his chicks, and allowing them to huddle underneath him, just as the females do. It's actually impossible for us to know which girl actually hatched the eggs, as all three adults respond to the chicks calling, all three feed them, and all three shelter them. We don't know if this is typical of King quails, or whether we have an unusual set-up. It does seem apparent that males play a major role in childcare, which is lovely to see. We'd be really interested to know if anyone else has seen male King quails caring for their young.

We were shocked to notice a couple of extras coming for the daily seed distribution - two mice moved in with Plum and his family a few days ago - they didn't seem to pose any threat to the birds, but they weren't really given the chance! Plum and the girls would puff up to twice their size, raise their wings and dart at the mice whenever they saw them, making a strange low growling call. The mice would disappear immediately, creeping back when they could, eating the seeds. We caught one, and dispatched it, and the other seems to have left. The chicks are growing unbelievably fast - we'll try and get more pictures.