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