June 26th, 2009 (09:59 pm)
I was working out in the front flower bed one Saturday morning, and I could hear a bird purring. Yes, purring.. over my right shoulder, behind me in the bushes. It was a quail for sure, but making the strangest of noises.
I went over to see what was going on, and there were two quail chicks in the gutter. The mother and father were up near the sidewalk in the bushes, calling down to the babies, who were much too small to climb up themselves.
I lifted one and placed him in the bushes, and after Austin snapped a few quick pictures I put the second little guy back with his family.

That evening I was doing the dishes and just outside the window I could see the quail family relocating across the open lot next to us; Mother running first, Father pulling up the rear...
eleven babies darting along in the middle. Austin said they "had enough kids to spare; you should have kept one". I told him not to say that, because I really did want to. I
love quail.
Two days later I went into my art room and could hear a peeping through my open window. A quail chick had fallen in to the window well. I went outside, jumped down in and scooped him up. We went for a little walk around the house, the lot next door, the trees across the street... I couldn't find any other quail that could have been looking for him. In a hurry to make my orthodontist appointment, I put him in a box with shavings and placed a heat lamp over him until I got home. I didn't want the neighborhood cats to get him.
Austin said it was that same 'eleventh chick' come back for me; sought me out to be my own little bird. That's about when I started getting attached.
I picked up some poultry starter feed at a farmer's supply store on the way home and placed it in the box with the chick. There are so many cats wandering near here the little guy would never stand a chance on his own, so I didn't want to just put him out in the dirt and expect him to make it. So, we sat on the lawn for a good half-hour; me assuming the chick's little peeps and chirrups would bring his parents around.
No luck.
While I was out with Carrie Austin tried the same thing; letting the baby chirp and chirp to see if the adults would return, but again, no results. Austin went inside and left the box in my art room below the open window so the peeping could be heard outside.
But, when I got home that night the little quail had gotten so cold that he lay sprawled in the shavings, motionless on his side.
We thought for sure he was dead.
I scooped him up in my hands feeling so sorry for the tiny bird, and suddenly he gasped for breath. I immediately went under the heat lamp and gently rubbed his tiny body over and over until he started to fluff back up and get to his feet.
Austin found a syringe in the medicine cabinet and filled it with water. While I held the chick Austin carefully, and one drop at a time, gave the bird a drink.
We were up until two am with the little thing making sure he was warm and hydrated. Once he bedded down with tired eyes we let him be.
The next morning while I was at work Austin took the chick up the street where a quail family was finally found and so the little bird was released.
He was so cute... I hope he's now one of the bigger quail I see running around.