The Quail Diaries, El Segundo, 3

RIP little quail

This is a picture of ROBK when I first trapped him two days ago. He was a beautiful little quail.My son and I found his little body today next to a lemonade berry bush. He had puncture wounds above his right wing and his eyes had been eaten. Do Cooper’s hawks eat the eyes of their prey? Does anyone out there know? After checking him and saying goodbye, I carried him down into the brush a bit and left him there, somewhat visible. This is because I suspected we’d interrupted a hawk with his/her meal. When I walked down that same path 30 minutes later, the little quail body was gone. When you work with a prey species, a little food sack of an organism, you know they are killed by predators all the time. This was the first time, however, I have identified one of my birds after he/she has been killed. (Usually, of course, there is nothing left).

It is New Year’s Day and perhaps I should be thinking about omens. But making this little bird into an omen would turn this into something about me rather than something about this little bird. But this is about the male quail, who I think was less than a year old (based upon his plumage) and who is dead today. This is about what he was. It is also about who ever took him and about this other creature’s life. It is not about me, I am only happenstance.

(Besides that, on a self-absorbed human-centric note, I cannot seem to recognize the turning of the year…it isn’t a turning for me yet.)

Rest in Peace little bird.