Hail! Hail! The Bevy's All Here!

I posted another photo-essay a couple of days ago but, yesterday afternoon, I was able to capture the entire bevy in a couple of shots at the top of the driveway and I thought you might enjoy seeing how many of them there really are:

This next photo is of a male and female walking away. I included it so you could see the differences for I.D. purposes:

As you can see, the male's "facial mask" is darker and starkly outlined in white all the way around its circumpherence. What's not so obvious is the difference in their little "topknots". While each of them have a topknot feather, the female's is shorter, sticks up straighter and doesn't curl over and down in front as much as the male's.

California quail -- especially the females -- love to take dust baths! Here are a few shots of this behavior and, in the first one, you can see the female's topknot more in profile:

Here's a little male really enjoying his dustbath!

You can really see the clouds of dust in this next shot:

Right after I finished taking the above shots yesterday afternoon, Plunkett ("Black Kitty Amigo and Lord and Master of the Universe and All Related Dimensions -- Fearless and Great Hunter and God's Gift to the World -- All-Knowing, All-Seeing, Whose Very Name Strikes Terror Into the Hearts of Man and Beast, Bringer of Light and Song and Proof Positive That God is a Cat") -- (Hey, I have to include his complete title whenever I refer to him in print... It's in his contract) ran up and spooked the entire bevy.

If you've never heard or seen a bevy of quail that's been scared off by something, I'll tell ya, the noise is sudden and loud -- all that fluttering and cackling (they're fairly large birds, actually) -- you wouldn't believe they could make all that noise...

You should've seen Plunkett's reaction! He was so startled that he jumped STRAIGHT UP in the AIR about 2 feet! ROFL!

Funny kitty...  ;^D

Well, my precious Gather friends, that's about all from the ole singlewide here in the hills above the little town of Cloverdale in Sonoma County, Northern California...

'Til next time,

luv,

jean