Over the past few weeks, I've been seeing Gray Partridge more often in the
yard. They are always outside in the surrounding fields, but rarely come
into the yard. Sunday (August 7) a little family of 4 chicks and a parent
(mom, I presume, but it might be dad) appeared in the yard. The chicks,
which are very small and can't be more than a few days old, had several
close calls with the dogs.

I used to think that newly-fledged baby robins were the dopiest, woefully
defenseless birds on earth. Many of them fall prey to the dogs, owls,
kestrels, etc. Baby partridges are worse. When my blood-thirsty female
poodle with aspirations of coyote-hood makes her dash at a crowd of birds,
the baby partridges run a short distance, appear to forget what they are
doing, and resort to wandering and peeping. Strangely, the dogs seem to
have trouble locating the peeping noise and seeing the chicks, even in short
grass. So far, I've been able to grab the killer poodle and give the birds
a chance to escape to the other side of the fence. I've seen the same
invisibility phenomenon with a dog and an encounter with a Spruce Grouse
mother and chicks a few years ago in the Okanogan Highlands. Perhaps it's
because the chicks have a pattern of movement that looks like leaves blowing
in the wind. The poodles can see a squirrel through dense brush from
approximately 3 miles, so I'm sure it's not a vision problem.

I didn't see the partridge family yesterday and hoped mom had decided the
yard was too dangerous. They were back today, hanging around the sprinkler.
At first, I thought they were coming into the yard because of the apples and
cherries on the ground, but they follow the sprinklers around. They must be
seeking water or the insects attracted to the water. This afternoon, I
decided to do a walk around to flush them out of the yard before I let the
dogs out. The family, still with 4 chicks, was hanging around the sprinkler
with the usual starling and robin gang. One of the chicks is hopping
instead of running, but in the grass, I can't see his legs. I got them
moving, but didn't actually see them leave the yard. (Amazing how fast they
can vanish if you lose sight of them.)

As I'm walking back to the house, I turn around and scan the area with the
binos. I see about 5 brown partridge heads motionless above the grass,
right where I have just walked. I walk toward them, a little annoyed and
curious to see how close I can get before they fly. Not very close. A few
steps and a flock of 7 or 8 ADULT partridges (no chicks) takes off. Now
where did they come from???

So, I can't believe I'm doing this, but I've put a sprinkler in the weeds
outside the fence. Maybe if I run the sprinkler for a while before I let
the dogs out, the partridge family will be drawn outside the fence. Yes, I
know it's silly to get emotionally invested in the survival of a handful of
chicks (of an exotic species, no less) when the vast majority will never
make it to adulthood anyway. They are awfully cute, however.

In the meantime, the ominous gray and orange cloud to the south over the
Blue Mountains is building up again this afternoon. The winds have picked
up and I suspect the fire has too.


Kelly Cassidy
Pullman, WA
mailto:lostriver at completebbs.com