A little story about quail.

We have quail in our neighborhood; a great number of quail. The quail like to wander through our yard and garden, and they are pests at the beginning of the gardening season because they will eat the seeds and tender sprouts. But we all like seeing the baby quail scurrying after their parents in the middle summer months.

Last week, I was in the middle of something noisy (I forget what... a sibling argument? L shouting a story at me because she fears she will not be heard if her voice drops below 93 decibels? T interrupting her in order to confirm her fears? Just don't remember...) when H excitedly informed me that there were baby birds on the back patio. What kind of birds? He didn't know? What were they doing? "Just kind of opening their mouths and peeping." I went to the patio to investigate and found three baby quail stuck fast to the concrete, chirping their little heads off and making quite the pitiful sight. You see, we have a hummingbird feeder hanging from the eaves over the patio, at a height convenient both for it to be seen from the window and for it to strike inattentive adults on the head as the walk by. Some of the "nectar" had been knocked out of the feeder and left in a tiny puddle on the patio, where the heat had evidently turned into baby quail-snaring glue.

So I fetched some water, diluted the syrup glue, and managed to free the little birds while T offered worried hope that their parents would find them and H mentioned oh-so casually that it would be nice to keep birds as pets.

The story has a happy ending. We herded the little birds over near that part of the fence where the quail are always coming and going, went inside, and had the pleasure of peeping through the window and seeing the rest of the quail family coming to collect the three stragglers.

Then when J came home he asked why I didn't think to keep them to raise for eggs and food. Ok... sure. (Can you hear my eyes rolling from there?)

Venturing into the world of blogging...

All right. It's time. It's time to try the blog thing. Our family's not getting any smaller! In honor of B's arrival, I am going to attempt to keep a record of the (sometimes strange) goings-on of the Garrett clan.

Here is a happy B, one month old:

And here is B not so happy: