Monday, July 07, 2008

There's a dog on the fence!

Gary is not an exclaimer by nature, unlike moi. I'm always yelling "Hurry, hurry, come and look at this! or You've got to see this!!" So the morning I heard Gary exclaim "There's a dog on our fence!" I went running to see what he was talking about. (I had visions of circus poodles swirling in my mind as I ran across the house.) When I got to the window Gary was looking out--I couldn't believe it but there was a coyote walking along the top of our six-foot fence! It was a surreal sight. Then it jumped off the fence and into our yard. Once I came to my senses, I went running for the camera. As long as we've lived here we've never seen a coyote in the yard. The coyote started walking towards the grassy area and once up there, it started jumping around--pouncing on something. Then I saw quails madly swooping down from the tree basically dive-bombing the coyote around the head. I realized there must be chicks in the grass. (you can barely see the coyote in the grass--that wily coyote...)
When I opened the back door, the coyote jumped up and over the fence in a single bound. I understand all about survival of the fittest and all but I was relieved I didn't see the coyote get the quail chicks. There have been six little chicks and their parents tooling about our yard for a few weeks... Here are the parents back at their posts after all the commotion. The dad quail.

The mom quail.

We saw all the chicks and the parents zipping around the yard later in the afternoon. :)