5th-Wheel Wanderings

Arizona has an amazing number of bird species throughout the year. It is located on a major bird flyway and is far enough south to attract birds from Central and South America. One of my favorite birds is the Gambel's Quail, which lives here year round. This year a pair of these birds had babies near the dog run down the street from our spot in the resort. We had to go see them.

We don't have a dog, but many of our neighbors do. That is how we learned about the babies.

We spotted seven baby birds, as well as two adults. Whenever a human approached the space at the rear of the dog area, one of the parents would begin talking to the babies. They seemed to understand there was danger, but didn't really know what to do. They would run back and forth along the cinder block wall at the rear. Finally, one of the parents gathered them all and hid them under its wings.

These photos were taken with a cell phone, so they aren't good, but you can get an idea of what we saw.

When we walked one of the neighbors called out, "Hey, where is your dog?" "What dog?" we said. "We only are interested in birds!"