Quail baby rescue

Yesterday afternoon, while I was fixing Bogie's dinner, I looked out the window and saw a quail pair approaching the ground level bird bath.  Sweet.  Wait.  Something else is moving.  At least 20 little puffball babies. 

Bogie was distracted by eating, but I was afraid he would want to go outside afterwards.  I watched the babies go back under the gate.  Whew!.  Wait.  Mom and Dad didn’t leave.  Babies came streaming back into the yard.  Bogie laid down with no plans to go out into the heat.

Babies scurried back under the gate.  Yay!  Again, Mom and Dad didn’t leave and the babies came streaming back.  I opened the patio door, hoping the noise would send them all under the gate.

Mom and Dad flew over the wall.  The babies scurried away – into the yard.  I made sure Bogie couldn’t get outside, then I went out to gather up babies.  I found where some were hiding and herded them to the gate.  Score!  They went under. 

But wait, others went the opposite direction.  I caught one and put it outside the gate.  And it tried to come back into the yard!  I deflected it and put it further outside.

Herded the rest toward the gate.  Caught another and deposited it outside.  Didn’t see any more and went inside to find Bogie completely uninterested in what was happening. 

As I cleaned his bowl at the sink, I saw 3 more babies scurry along the wall and under the gate.  I watched a while longer, but nothing else moved.  All babies safely outside the yard.

Not my photo

Unexpected spring visitor

I was reading curled up on the living room couch. Bogie was sleeping on the throw rug in front of the open door.  The screen door was shut so he couldn't get out.

Suddenly I see a movement.  A lizard scurried from under the couch!  It saw me as I saw it.  It hurried under the hutch.  Then when I tried to catch it, it scurried under the camelback trunk.  I didn’t even know there was room underneath.

Throughout this, Bogie seemed completely unaware until I moved the trunk a little to see the tip of a tail. For some reason, instead of “helping” he went outside to sleep in peace. Thankfully.

I found some empty plastic storage containers and a cardboard box and surrounded the trunk. But there were gaps.  I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t want to scare it out into the open where Bogie could get it.  So I went next door to get my teenage neighbor, since he has lizards. 

He came over with me.  Said if we pick up the trunk he’ll grab the lizard.  Happily, the trunk was empty.  We lifted it a bit.  The lizard skittered.   My neighbor tried to grab it and missed.  The lizard ran right into one of the storage containers.  Luckily it was pretty deep. 

I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  He suggested out the back gate.  But his mom had wondered if it came in through the gap between front door and screen.  So I thought, out front where he probably came from. 

As we stepped outside, another lizard scurried from the base of a tree to the pile of rocks by the sidewalk.  Spouse?  So I let the one we’d captured go by the rocks.  He didn’t want to leave the container.  I had to dump him out.  And he scurried to safety between the rocks. 

Whew! 

He was about 8” long, half of that tail.  My neighbor said it was probably a whiptail.  It looked very much like this.