Calling Quail

I've seen more quail this spring than I have in the past 5 years.  Maybe it's from all the rain this year and last.  I've seen a number of pairs or small coveys, and I'm looking forward to the next phase of fuzzy little ping-pongs running through the grass after the adults.  A single brood has been known to have as many as 28 young, and multiple broods are frequently raised communally, so that it a lot of tottering fuzz.

When I was a kid, I volunteered at the Sonoma County Bird Rescue Center. Every spring, well meaning folks would see the precocial babies running on the ground, and assume they had fallen from a nest.  Or sometimes some of the young would actually get separated from parents by the insurmountable barrier of a curb.  Folks would scoop up the entire brood and bring them to the rescue center.  All of the chicks brought in would get placed together in big tubs of cute to be raised by volunteers and staff.  I'm sure our local Wildcare experiences a similar seasonal influx.

Usually all I hear is the quick "pit-pit-pit" alarm call as the rolly polly birds dive for the bushes along a trail, or the distant "Chi-ca-go". This morning I came across a very vocal male letting the world know where he stood with an "advertisement" call.  On a fence post... at the trailhead to Smith Ridge Fire Road.

The other call you hear in the foreground is my son mimicking the calls, and much to his delight (and the quails possible confusion), getting answered.

Here are some still shots as he calls, and composed himself between announcements.

References:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Quail/lifehistory
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/473/articles/introduction