There are several things my Mom and I like to see and do when we visit Arizona, and one of those things is seeing a Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii). We usually hear their familiar call before we see them; the male warning the female and babies to run for cover because those blasted humans are nearby again. Here’s one of the males we saw in 2005:
We usually see them on the ground in the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ. This same year we saw a family of quail – the female and babies running for cover, but do you think I could get the camera going fast enough to catch those cute little babies? No. Sorry. Believe me, I wish I did, because they were so cute!
Last year we heard a Gambel’s Quail, but this time we heard it calling from a tree:
There were very loud and obnoxious people running through the gardens, and this quail was very unhappy with them. We got far away from those people ourselves while I stood far away taking photos of the quail. The next photo is fuzzy, but it shows his topknot:
I hate it when ignorant people don’t know what they’re doing to the wildlife by being obnoxious.
With the temperature here way below freezing and it snowing like crazy, I’ve been thinking about Arizona and Gambel’s Quail today. I can’t wait to see them again, the babies I saw in recent years all grown up now. There’s lots of other wildlife in this garden, but I’ll save that for another day!
Nature Woman 