![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/california-quail-3529b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"california-quail-3529b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nFor the last couple of weeks an obviously mated pair of California Quail has been hanging out in my back yard. Late yesterday afternoon, while I was hand-washing dishes (I don’t put everything in the dishwasher), I spotted both of them foraging in my vegetable garden. My camera and lens happened to be sitting on the kitchen table, so I grabbed my gear and hoped to get lucky with the quail.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Within seconds of me getting the male in my viewfinder, all hell broke out in my back yard. All the birds in my Catalpa trees and huge grapevine gave out alarm calls and quickly disappeared. At the same moment, both quail made a mad dash across my garden toward the cover beneath my grapevine.<\/p>\n This is the male, running fast across my garden. I got this one sharp shot with him looking toward me as his topknot was bobbing wildly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I didn’t get the female in my viewfinder until she was nearly to the grapevine. Immediately after this shot was taken, both quail disappeared in the flowerbed at the base of the grapevine.<\/p>\n Seconds later a Cooper’s Hawk that was obviously hunting for dinner landed in another part of the huge grapevine. A split second before I got my lens on ‘him’, he took off for parts unknown. All I got was three shots of the vacated vine.<\/p>\n I’m hoping that the quail will be nesting beneath my storage shed. They’ve done it at least twice in the past.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m hoping that the quail will be nesting beneath my shed. They’ve done it before. (2 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/california-quail-3568-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"california-quail-3568-ron-dudley\\"")
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