Birds and Nature

I was surprised when I opened my motel room door as I saw a Gambel's Quail jump up into a tall shrub--after perching on the top it wiggled through the leaves to inside the shrub where it is totally not visible. What an interesting adaptation--the quail are roosting in the shrubs around the courtyard of this motel where they are not visible to people and have protection from predators that are unlikely to come this close to humans to seek them out. They come from some vacant lots around my motel that have mostly desert habitat. There were about 2 dozen Gambel's Quail that worked their way to the many shrubs here, some walking right by the pool to get to the shrubs and some perching on the pool chairs then flying into the shrubs from the chairs. I had a blast watching them. SeEtta

Sorry that the quail in the photo are a little blurry but they came to the pool at my motel at dusk. In fact there were Gambel's Quail walking next to the pool with guys sitting on lounge chairs either not noticing or not interested. I have been delighted with the neat birds around my motel (others are Curve-billed Thrashers, lots of Cactus Wrens and even Greater Roadrunners) These two took advantage of pool chairs to perch on. Why were they there-see next post. SeEtta