The greenhouse blew apart last weekend. It looked rather spectacular, but seems to have had minimal impact on anything important. Basically, the plastic film over that greenhouse had weakened in the sun (which is amazingly strong in this part of the desert--er, I mean, this part of the world) and when we had a strong windstorm the plastic burst along the poles, leaving the tatters around the edges. I cleaned up all of the plastic and moved the remaining plant starts out of the harsh sun, but there is still a lawnmower in the middle of the empty frame, dutifully shielding the quail.
Mama scurried out yesterday when I got too close, but at least I know that she is still taking care of the eggs. We first noticed her in the greenhouse on the 2nd, and first saw the eggs on the 9th. Figuring in a three week hatching time we expect chicks somewhere between this coming Friday and the next, depending on when they were actually layed. It is possible that we missed her somehow before that, but unlikely. I'll post updates when we have them.
One other thing--we killed what appears to have been a small gopher snake in front of this greenhouse last Saturday. My father-in-law noticed it while picking cherries and dropped a large brick on its head thinking it was a rattler (very unlikely given the location and contents of my garden) so its kind of hard to identify, the shape of the head being important in these things, especially since so many of the young ones have similar markings. In any case, gopher snakes are not very aggressive, but they eat quail eggs... I'm keeping an eye out for them.
I never thought I'd be trying to defend the ubiquitous quail in my yard.
