Soft whispering of quail a sign property has come a long way

A male quail being a lookout. (ERNIE COWAN)

ERNIE COWAN Outdoors

I could hear the whispers and it sounded juicy.

If only I understood quail.

It was an intimate moment with nature like I had never experienced before.

Sitting motionless at the edge of the flowerbed I was listening in to the whispered conversations of feeding quail just a few feet away.

The murmurings were hushed, almost inaudible.

I’ve written before about the “muttering army” of quail that pass my bedroom window at dawn as they emerge from native cover and march to a nearby seed feeder. Their not-so-subtle cooing then is an almost daily alarm clock.

This was the same sound, but I could almost not hear it. Had there been a wind or other noise the sounds would have vanished. The feeding quail were obviously close to each other with no need to be speaking loudly.

This became an impromptu sit-and-see moment.

I was out enjoying the morning sun and had pulled up a chair to watch a spotted towhee as he bounced around in a nearby tree while singing his characteristic three sharp notes and a trill.

That’s when I noticed movement in the low thicket of blooming marguerites and then heard the soft sounds of the quail not more than 10 feet from me.

Suddenly a feathered head popped up and there was more rustling movement followed by glimpses of quail skittering through the shrubbery.

Quail have a strong social bond, and apparently this was a covey softly chatting with each other as they looked for seeds that had fallen from a feeder hanging above.

I sat very still for fear of spooking them and enjoyed the muted bird whispers and occasional peek as heads would pop up above the plants.

Perhaps sensing my presence or just being typically protective, one male jumped up on a nearby rock to act as a lookout. I sat very still so he would not sound an alarm to warn his companions.

Soon the covey moved on, and the quail whispers faded with them.

They will be back because they spend a better part of most days enjoying my seed feeders, poking around in the flower gardens or drinking from the small clay saucer I keep always filled with water with a drip irrigation line.

It wasn’t always this way.

When we came to Mt. Whoville about 16 years ago, it was a bare, graded lot where we would build our home. It’s a narrow, hogback ridge, about a mile long and 200 feet wide, sloping off into native vegetation.

Our goal was to create a wildlife “country club,” where the native critters could come to enjoy dependable sources of food, water, shelter and nesting sites.

We started with nectar and seed feeders that attracted hummingbirds and the regulars like house finches, scrub jays, dove and towhees.

Rabbits quickly adopted us. They loved our tender new plants until we shifted to native shrubs and things they didn’t like.

I knew quail were in the surrounding chaparral thickets but could never seem to get them to come out to feed.

That changed as the landscaping matured.

Quail are ground feeders, and they are also prey to marauding Cooper’s hawks. They need places to hide if a hawk shows up looking for a meal.

As our gardens and shrubs matured, I placed feeders and water near cover, and that’s when quail felt comfortable enough to share our ridgetop.

The quail and I have become pretty good friends. They still don’t talk to me, but they no longer explode in panic when I walk out of the house.

Now, they just stop and watch to see what I am going to do. If I walk too close, they will quietly move away.

These plump little birds are daily visitors now, starting with my morning wake-up call and I’ve even caught them on my game camera just after dark as they drink at the opossum pond.

They are comfortable enough to bring their tiny, incredibly cute new chicks in to drink several times a day in early summer. I am looking forward to the next crop of youngsters that resemble striped, fuzzy walnuts with skinny legs.

I talk to my quail.

If they are in the yard when I walk outside, I explain softly that I’m just going to the car to get something or put out the trash and “not to worry.”

I listen as they talk, but so far, I can’t figure out what they are saying. About the only thing I get is something about “Chi-ca-go.”

It’s probably just as well.

I’m sure they’re talking about me.

Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.

Column: Got some sugar, water, oranges or grape jelly lying around?

Residents are encouraged to share their images and videos of oriole visitors on social media using the hashtags #birdfromhome #weloveorioles and #sdorioles.

(Ernie Cowan)

Ernie Cowan’s Outdoors column

By ERNIE COWANCOLUMNIST 

FEB. 20, 2021 5 AM PT

The kids are coming home and I’m excited.

OK, they’re not really my kids, but I feed them and provide a place for them to stay, so they might as well be.

In the next few days, the brightly colored hooded oriole males will begin straggling into San Diego County from their winter homes in Mexico.

They have made a long, challenging journey and will welcome the energy provided by orange slices, grape jelly or nectar feeders filled with fresh sugar water.

By mid-March, local gardens will be buzzing with both males and females as they delight birders with their comical antics, bickering and nest building activities.

Over the summer they will construct delicately woven pouch nests, lay eggs and raise a crop of youngsters. By late summer the fledglings will add crowds to feeders as they fatten up in preparation for their first migration to Mexico.

Hooded orioles welcome the energy provided by orange slices, grape jelly or nectar feeders filled with fresh sugar water.

(Ernie Cowan)

By mid-September the orioles will be gone.

This seasonal display is much anticipated by local bird lovers, and researcher Yara Fisher wants to encourage others to put out the welcome mat for them.

Fisher, a San Diego resident, is pursuing an online master’s degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in the Advanced Inquiry Program that includes experiential learning through San Diego Zoo Global.

Her love of orioles in particular has prompted her to reach out to engage the wider public to attract, feed and care for these beautiful birds.

To help spread the word and track participation, Fisher wants to encourage people to share their images and videos of their feeding stations, bird baths and oriole visitors on social media using the hashtags #birdfromhome #weloveorioles and #sdorioles.

“We are challenged to make a difference in our communities through community engagement in conservation. This year, I am trying to raise awareness of the oriole migration in San Diego and provide easy tips for people to become involved in attracting and providing sustenance to these beauties,” she said.

Wild birds in general and orioles in particular are an easy way to get people to connect with nature.

“I think the oriole may be a nice gateway bird to feed and watch given its unique and stunning presence here,” Fisher said.

It’s a labor of love for Fisher who is a third-generation bird lover, having learned from her grandfather.

Fisher sees wild birds as an easy way for people to connect with nature, even in their own private spaces.

“Attracting and feeding wild birds can increase the welfare of the birds as well as contribute to our mental health,” she said.

She hopes to encourage people to change their behavior and to understand they can become involved with wild birds even if they live in a small apartment or urban setting.

“I hear people say they have not seen any birds to feed, but you have to attract them,” she said.

Birds also attract birds, so putting out feeders and birdbaths will bring in more common species initially.

What makes the colorful hooded oriole so much fun is the ease with which they can be attracted, even to small places like an apartment balcony.

Attracting wild birds is like having a pet, but so much easier.

“You do need to keep feeders clean and make sure birds are safe from predators like house cats and maybe put decals on large windows, so birds don’t fly into them,” she said.

After that you just need a bit of patience.

“It may take a little time for them to show up the first season, but once they find the food they will return,” she said. “If you hear something different, that might be the first sign that orioles have arrived.”

By mid-March, local gardens will be buzzing with both male and female orioles.

(Ernie Cowan)

The most popular food that birders put out for hooded orioles is a simple mixture of one part sugar and four parts water in a feeder designed for the larger beaks of the birds. The addition of red dye is not necessary.

This is the same nectar that hummingbirds devour, but orioles can’t feed through the small holes of hummingbird feeders. Oriole feeders allow both species to feed.

During the peak of oriole season, you may refill feeders frequently. Take time to clean them completely, since mold will easily develop in the sugar water mixture.

Orioles also like orange slices and there are feeders that allow you to attach an open grape jelly jar.

Orioles are messy with the grape jelly, so hang those over garden areas to avoid sticky walkways or patio furniture.

Once these lively birds find your feeders, you can enjoy a summer of activity. Males arrive first, then the females and that’s when you find them hanging upside down under your feeder, sliding down a wire to get to a feeder, or head bobbing as they bicker over who gets to eat first.

The almost electric yellow-orange and jet black of the male make them easy to identify. Females have more muted hues.

In mid-summer the fledglings will arrive, and this will increase the demand on your feeders. If you enjoy having the orioles around, keep the feeders clean and full.

Spirits fly high with comforting appearance of red-tailed hawk

The red-tailed hawk is the most common hawk in the region. (ERNIE COWAN) 

ERNIE COWAN Outdoors

For a few brief moments I could fly.

My mind and heart were soaring on the spread wings of a red-tailed hawk as it floated by at eye level.

Without a single wingbeat, the hawk’s tail feathers flared as he banked to the right and the crisp morning sunlight ignited the brilliant red plumage.

With awe and childlike imagination I was right there, at one with the hawk, floating on gently rising air currents.

A leftover raindrop dripped from my patio roof into the fountain and snapped me back to reality.

As is often the case, the sunny morning following a rainstorm is a special time. Nature seems to go on as usual, but there is a sense of rejuvenation in the air.

The morning sunlight was warm and refreshing, a relief from the previous cold, damp days.

My hawk sighting was comforting.

Nature’s clock is still ticking.

This beautiful mature hawk was a good sign. We can look forward to another season of hawk courtship, nesting and chicks fledging.

It’s about this time each year that the hawks begin their mating ritual, followed by a flurry of activity as they touch up the huge nest in the tall pine tree about a half-mile north of Mt. Whoville.

It’s the natural rhythms that determine these things.

My morning visitor is hopefully part of the monogamous pair that have nested here over the past few years and a sign that courtship will begin very soon.

The courtship display is magnificent and often something I can enjoy at eye level or below since I am perched on top of a ridge overlooking expanses of chaparral.

The wooing process is almost poetic with the hawk pair engaging in spectacular aerobatic maneuvers that often begin with the smaller male bird circling high above the larger female then dropping quickly and touching her briefly.

This is followed by tumbles and dives, swoops and flares, extended talons and sometimes even an offering of food from male to female.

During this process mating will happen and soon there will be eggs filled with life in the nearby 3-foot-wide nest.

We know the eggs have hatched when the squawking of hungry chicks fills the air and we see the more frenzied activity of the adult hawks as they forage for their demanding youngsters.

Once eggs are deposited in the nest, they will hatch in about 28 days. During that time, both the female and male will share incubation duty, but it will be mostly the female hawk. The male will bring her food, but she will hunt when the male is tending the eggs.

At about 46 days the chicks are ready to leave the nest and that’s when the show on Mt. Whoville begins.

Awkward fledglings, lacking the red tails that don’t develop for six months or so, will be encouraged from the nest by parents. Lacking confidence, or desire, they will land in nearby trees and continue to scream, demanding to be fed.

The adult hawks will ignore them and soon you will see the youngsters flying side by side with parents as they learn to hunt on their own. It’s so much fun to watch.

For a time, you might see the youngsters hunting with more confidence, but soon they will set off to establish their own territory and begin the cycle all over again.

The annual cycle of nature’s renewal has begun.

You may not have red-tailed hawks nesting right near you, but as the most common hawk in the region, locating a nesting pair to observe should not be difficult. It’s a perfect sit-and-see activity.

Maybe our roadrunner pair will show up again this year with another youngster or my game cameras will capture a new crop of coyote pups, or even a baker’s dozen of baby opossums clinging to the back of their haggard marsupial parent.

This morning there were two spotted towhees fluttering together in obvious courtship, and for the past few nights we have heard the hooting of great-horned owls as they begin their mating ritual.

Spring is just around the corner. Soon, the yellow-rumped warblers, affectionately known as butter butts, and white-crowned sparrows will depart for summer homes far to the north.

The oak titmouse and woodpeckers that left summer breeding grounds to enjoy winter feeders here at Mt. Whoville will return to their regular territory at higher elevations of the county.

Our gardens will come alive with spring blossoms, colorful hooded orioles and hummingbirds and the new crop of songbirds, quail chicks, opossums, raccoons and squirrel babies.

At a time when the human world is so fraught with challenges, it’s comforting to know that nature ticks on faithfully.

Is there any wonder why I free my mind to soar with the hawks?

Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.