There's a "severe weather system" moving south at the moment, bringing with it heavy rains and strong winds. We've been pretty sheltered - so far - with little wind and only 20mm of rain today (in the north they've had over 200mm!) The quails cope remarkably well with heavy rains - the temperatures are very mild - and although the birds look slightly damp in the morning, they are active and happy, hunting slugs and worms. Today as we came home after school, instead of a flock of birds waiting at the gate for their afternoon feed, hopping and pecking each other and cheeping eagerly, there was an ominous stillness and complete silence...and a collared sparrowhawk (image from media.trevorsbirding.com)
sitting on the net above the door. He (or she) was beautiful, but threatening. We walked over and he flew off, but it took a while to spot our quails. They had frozen to the ground, utterly motionless, pressed low and flat, with enormous wide eyes, staring. They had evidently stopped in their tracks as soon as the hawk arrived - some were completely in the open, others were under bushes or against the shed, but all were unbelievably still. It took them quite a while to move again, even with us walking around, scattering seeds and talking to them. The young ones have never seen a raptor, and certainly have never been attacked, but they all had the same instinct - to freeze. Without the netting over them it wouldn't be much of a defence, but it seems to be all they have...One of our girls (Blork) didn't turn up for her feed, but there were no feathers, and we hope she was just hidden especially well. We'll check for her again tomorrow.
