Quail groupies

It's afternoon and the moon is 93% full and visible in its waning Gibbous phase over Africa, Paris, the Atlantic and all that, no place I can see, although I did rise early enough this morning to see it shining in through two small windows in the front part of the house and onto the row of cactus's by the door in pots which, I feel certain, made them very happy because plants love moonlight, and a party of quail just now came streaming through the Bird Park on their way to check out the finch spillage on the ground under the seed tube. This is not unusual. They visit the park several times a day for goodies, ending with one final swoop at twilight after everyone else is tucked in for the night, head under wing.

What is unusual, at least around here, is that finches, lots of them, have taken to hanging out with the quail, following them around the yard imitating everything they do. They sit on the fence with them and, when it's time for the quail dirt bath party, the finches are right there wallowing along side them in the soft warm dirt, something I never noticed them do on their own, not that they don't take dirt baths elsewhere. They probably do. I've just never seen them take one here. And they crowd into the butterfly bush when the quail are there doing whatever it is they do, nibble bugs maybe, tasty spiders or ants. They graze the weeds with them, and they bathe in the baths and drink together and, in the writing of this rather pointless post, the whole lot, quail and finches, have scooted off, probably back to Dwayne's for dinner. The only thing the finches don't do with them is the twilight snack. And the quail don't seem to mind the company. I did a quick search and found out that there is actually is an African Quail Finch. I have to say, they do look a bit alike, cousins maybe, same colored feathers anyway. You know what they say about feathers.

That's it. I just needed to write something.