After not seeing any mountain quail for almost two months this morning I've been treated to quail behaviour to both be amazed by and to laugh at.

Around 6:20am a male quail was making some attempts at the male territorial call for a couple minutes. Then silence for the next hour. A couple days ago there were two families of mixed 4 adult and 6 young quail feeding. I think the one in the yard this morning is a lost young male from that group. From his behaviour he may have been ousted from the group.

This morning he has chased off a flock of 52 mourning doves, a flock of Stellar's Jays and a flock of 25 or so Band-tailed Pigeons. When the pigeons came in one-by-one he successfully chased off the birds. When more arrived he went after those on the ground causing most of them to take off. When more started coming in he would physically attack the pigeons by using his beak to poke them in the rump or side. At least twice he pulled tail feathers and at one point was still hanging on to tail feathers when the pidgeon tried to take off. After about two minutes of his increasingly aggressive but futile attemps to rid the feeding area of pigeons he apparently decided he'd better eat while he could.

He finally wandered off to another part of the yard out of my sight. A moulting adult just wandered into the yard so the rest of the covey may be in the area.

The quail have no regular feeding times yet this 'fall'. Many quail are around the subdivision and this part of the north Mason County area so happy 'hunting' if you want to try for quail yet this year.

Oops, Mr. Attitude just came back and is going after the jays again.

Isn't watching animal behaviour fun????

Mary Hrudkaj
Belfair/Tahuya