![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/california-quail-9142-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"california-quail-9142-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThese days I rarely publish posts to my blog on consecutive days, but today’s post is an extension of yesterday’s.<\/p>\n
Only seconds after I took my last photo of the Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay that I published photos of yesterday, I spotted a male California Quail running across my lawn toward the grapevine growing on the fence on the east side of my yard.<\/p>\n
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He was in a hurry, so I had to catch him in mid-stride. But suddenly he…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/california-quail-9152-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"california-quail-9152-ron-dudley\\"")
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stopped and froze, holding this position and posture for a very long time. Look closely and you’ll see why.<\/p>\n
In the background, right in front of his upper breast, is a rat peering back at him. I didn’t have enough depth of field to get them both sharp, but they were quite close to each other – only a few inches apart. They stared at each other for almost a full minute without moving, which is a very long time in the bird world.<\/p>\n
And that gave me much more time than I needed to…<\/p>\n
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train my active focus point on the rat. Eventually, after a very long mutual stare-down, the rat withdrew back into the shadows and the quail proceeded on his way, cautiously.<\/p>\n
Not my typical blog post but the encounter and the photos amused me, so I decided to share. At least something good and interesting can result from the presence of a %@#! rat.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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A big surprise for the quail and the photographer. (3 photos)<\/p>\n