Quail

 The Gambel's quail is a species of quail found in the desert regions of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas and northern Mexico. These birds spend most of their life on the ground. Flight is rarely used and then it is typically to escape danger. When they do fly it is usually for only a short distance. Most of the year they live in groups called coveys except during the mating season when they can be quite territorial. They are named for William Gambel who was a 19th century naturalist that explored the southwestern United Stataes.

Tuesday Tweets

One of the birds that we had the opportunity to photograph for the first time when we were down at the Bosque del Apache in New Mexico last year was the Gambel's quail. Named after the 19th century naturalist William Gambel the Gambel's quail is a non-migratory species that lives in the southwestern United States. These birds are almost always seen running across the ground and rarely in flight. They spend most of the year in groups called coveys, except. during the breeding season when they break into mated pairs and are very territorial towards other birds.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Quail

Approaching the end of the year Michelle and I both had some vacation time that we had accrued that we had to use otherwise we would lose it. Since we had never taken a vacation at the beginning of November we were not quite sure where to go. We decided to fly down to Colorado. Michelle has some family down there that we planned to stop and visit and then we were going to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in CO. and Arches National Park in Utah. Unfortunately a early fall snow storm decided to hit the mountains on one of the days that we were supposed to be traveling to Utah so we changed our plans and skipped Arches and headed down to the Bosque del Apache in Utah instead. I have been to the Bosque on two other occasions but this was the first time that I had been there in November and there was plenty there to see and photograph including several new species to add to my photographic life list.One of the new species was the Gambel's quail. We spotted one on the first day we arrived at the Bosque but unfortunately it flushed before I could get any decent pictures. It wasn't until the morning of the day that we were driving back to Denver to fly home that I had another opportunity and this time I got a few shots. A small flock of the birds were at the feeders by the visitors center when I stopped to pick up some souvenirs for family and friends back home. Most of the flock were down in the brush making it difficult to photograph them but one was in a tree looking like he was standing guard for the rest. The light was not great because I was shooting east into the rising sun but I did take a few shots like the first photo above. I then attempted to move around them so that I would be in a better position in respect to the light. Unfortunately they were quite wary and they flushed but I was able to get one shot with better light before the watch quail took off into the brush, photo two. These birds are common in the southwest United States, especially Arizona and New Mexico, but these were my first photos of these species so I was kind of excited.