A couple of months ago I was weeding and went to pull a weed -- only to be surprised to find a nest under one of our plants. We soon discovered a quail had built a nest and laid 16 eggs.
Unfortunately the nest was right next to our front door, with kids in and out all day. It was also right by a sprinkler so it go wet ... a lot!
We watch as she and the dad spent day after day protecting the nest, warning each other when people would come and fighting off the enemies... our cat, 13 kids in the neighborhood, and a blue bird that seemed obsessed with trying to get their eggs. All of the neighbors would come over and check out the eggs and I even received "warning" phone calls when our neighbor would see the kids getting to close.
We've watched as the mother would "kick out" an egg or two and then break them open to find them empty or a dead little quail fetus.
We watched them in the morning after they had to fight off the cat or the blue bird try to clean up the nest area from their feather.
During the past two weeks the eggs have dwindled from 16 -- down to 3.
Saturday morning we woke up to find the nest empty (actually kind of cleaned out) and the last three eggs "kicked-out."
We were all so sad we didn't get to watch any of the babies hatch and wander around the neighborhood. I'm so sad for their weeks of work -- and no little babies to show for. I'm so sad our daily "quail" update is over.
Sorry little quails!
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