Visitors Must Use Manners

The weather in the mornings are now cool and enjoyable. The dogs and I take every opportunity to be outside taking in the cool breezes and passing wildlife. An occassional coyote will amble by, the hummingbirds have returned and flutter quite close, but my favorite is the quail. I love everything about them: their strut; their calls; and most of all how they act as a family unit. The quail seem to have a regular route around the neighborhood. They visit our yard about 6:30 every morning. I throw seed into the rocks to encourage these regular visits. On a normal day we have about 1o quail visitors. This morning the quail announcement seemed to go out that there was ample food and the quail swarmed in. Within minutes we had over 30 pecking through the yard. All the while, Trekker lay on his pillow watching the amazing sight. Soon the quail began to quarrel over who got what section of the yard. This seemed to annoy Trek. He would leap off the pillow and run through the middle of the eating, quarrelling quail and send them running out of our yard. Then he'd make a couple laps through the perimeter of our yard to make sure all the quail were gone. When satisfied his job was done he'd return to his pillow. The food was too much to resist and the quail would gingerly return. Trekker would watch patiently from his pillow until another argument would pursue and then he'd leap off the pillow to clear our yard again of quarrelling quail. This happened over a half a dozen times. It was quite a sight to watch. I believe the moral of this story is, visitors are welcome, but we'll send you packing if you aren't pleasant!