Baby quail sightings

[knothead]

I normally begin to see quail hatchlings around middle to end of May.  This year has been unusual as I haven't seen any until this week.  I saw two different sets very near to one another.  One looked to be 3-4 weeks old and the other was just a few days.  Hope I start seeing a lot more.

[wish2hunt]

I seen one small batch about 2 weeks ago 2-3 days old

[trphyhntr]

Virtually none. My parents live in a neighborhood with lots of quail and I haven’t even seen one over there. In my neighborhood I’ve seen a couple. 

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

Several hatches 1st of June, and one new group of peanuts just this week. 

Clutch size is smaller than years past.

[oz31p]

It’s spotty. Golf courses around the north west end of the valley have seen. Good numbers on first hatchs

i was out in the desert north of the valley Sunday and there were several groups of first Hatchs with a few second hatches 

[Roofer Billy]

The quail and the cotton tails. Didn't have big hatch's or litters here. Normally tons of both. 

In Surprise. Water has a lot to do with quail . And there numbers. Baby quail need water almost immediately. If there isn't rain. Hatches seem small to non existent.

[bonecollector]

Not quite as many as last yr, not even close. I have only seen 2 different groups of babies in my hood.

[Ed67]

Saw pairs 6 weeks ago with 6-8. 3 weeks later maybe two left. The roadrunners hammer them where I’m at. 
4 days ago I saw a pair with about 6-8 brand new hatchlings. 

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

52 minutes ago, Ed67 said:

Saw pairs 6 weeks ago with 6-8. 3 weeks later maybe two left. The roadrunners hammer them where I’m at. 
4 days ago I saw a pair with about 6-8 brand new hatchlings. 

Hate those roadrunners, even the wife chases them out of the yard.

Can you imagine a 12' tall roadrunner, humans would go extinct. 

[knothead]

Those invasive grackles do a number on the chicks too.  

[Ed67]

37 minutes ago, GreatWhiteBuffalo said:

Hate those roadrunners, even the wife chases them out of the yard.

Can you imagine a 12' tall roadrunner, humans would go extinct. 

Yep, that would be a Velociraptor dinosaur 

[PRDATR]

17 minutes ago, knothead said:

Those invasive grackles do a number on the chicks too.  

Growing up back east it was a mix of potato farms, housing developments salt marsh and woods. I spent most of my time fishing, catching snakes/salamanders and fishing. The Grackles there weren't much bigger than a Red Winged Blackbird. 

The Great-tailed Grackels I found in Arizona were larger bodywise not including that huge tail. Like most Grackels they quickly adapt to urban areas and from what I had read they moved north from Mexico into AZ in the 1930's, probably following agriculture.

Once when driving through ASU I saw one chase after an Inca Dove. It overtook it fairly quickly forcing it down to the ground and proceeded to peck it to death.

[PRDATR]

10 minutes ago, Ed67 said:

Yep, that would be a Velociraptor dinosaur 

Birds and dinosaurs share some same taxonomy which I believe is the upper leg/hip geometry.

[trphyhntr]

32 minutes ago, knothead said:

Those invasive grackles do a number on the chicks too.  

When I was watching the quail parents walking with their babies I noticed they were really aggressive against the grackles. Then like a week later I noticed they only had 1 baby left, figured they got to them 

[Sky Island junkie]

1 hour ago, GreatWhiteBuffalo said:

Hate those roadrunners, even the wife chases them out of the yard.

Can you imagine a 12' tall roadrunner, humans would go extinct. 

Couple years ago I watched one grab a juvenile cottontail on a job site with a cockiness and aggressiveness of a mountain lion. The other day on old Spanish trail one ran out in front of a car to try and grab some poor critter and got plowed. It brightened my day!