Arizona Wild Bird Photos
IN NO WHERE DESERT ARIZONA
Up-date as of 06/16/02
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After weeks of seeing me on this site I do believe the Gambel's Quail are getting tamer.
To learn more about these Quail click the photo.
These two have come to within 12 to 15 feet of where I am sitting with my cameras.
Some thing must be A-FOOT here.
In the past they would never get any closer 30 to 40 feet of me.
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I didn't know it, but I was about to have another mystery unraveled.
Every time I returned to this site my water dish is completely full of dirt, and I mean piled high.
As always the male is on look-out while the hen goes about eating.
The birds beak is not open because its hungry,
but rather because its 114 degrees when I took this photo and
this bird is panting about 100 miles an hour, if you know what I mean.
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The male is about to start drinking. But wait a moment,
look down in the right hand corner not quite to the bottom of the image.
It's the hen, and do you think she is about to do?
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Notice any thing strange in this image?
The male or Cock is drinking, and that hen is doing some thing down there in the lower right of this image.
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Now we are getting some where. Look at the dirt fly.
I do believe this hen is taking what I would call a DUST BATH or DIRT BATH.
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Every now and again they would stop and look up out of the hole they had dug taking their dust baths.
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AND THEN?
The dirt/dust would really start to fly.
WOW
This is some real serious shaking,
and besides look at all of that dirt/dust coming off that bird.
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Mean-while a Gila Woodpecker perched on limb
above the Quail was watching all of the goings on, and wondering-
WHAT ARE, YOU BIRDS, DOING DOWN THERE, ANY WAY?
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Did you ever see a sillier pair of Quail?
What will they do next?
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By the time those Quail were through with their dusting my water dish was full of dirt.
At least I now know how it happens, and so do you.
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Well, I have saved the best for last. I say best because it is the most
colorful bird that has come to my site so far.