Male California quail. Photo by Lynda Nunn, Walnut Creek, CA

Gary:
This picture was just taken a few minutes ago. It’s not often I capture good pictures of a quail. They are too fast. I got lucky. This cutie was up in the tree on the lookout.
Lynda Nunn, Walnut Creek, California

Lynda:
California quail are one of my favorite birds. This male is beautiful! A few years ago they were rarely seen in local backyards, I suspect because we had so many feral cats that eat quail running around the Bay Area. But the feral cat rescue groups (and coyotes) seem to be thinning the feral population, because I’m getting more and more reports of quail being sighted just about every week. That’s great! /Gary

California quail female with chicks in local backyard. Photo by Lynda Nunn, Walnut Creek, CA

I’m starting to get more and more reports of California quail parents bringing their babies into local backyards these days. Ten years ago, there was hardly a quail to be found, I suspect because feral cats were killing them.

I’m also getting email from more and more people who say they’re seeing coyotes near their homes.  I wonder if the coyotes are thinning out the feral cat population, which, in turn, is allowing the quail population to increase?

Time will tell, I guess. Interesting. /Gary

California quail female with chicks in local backyard. Photo by Lynda Nunn, Walnut Creek, CA

Feral kitten rescued by Community Concern for Cats. Photo by Adelei Warachowski, Martinez, CA

My friend Gemma from Community Concern for Cats (CC4C) in Pleasant Hill, CA, called me earlier this week to tell me about a feral cat rescue she’d just made. Seems a guy had a problem with rats under his house, so he put a bunch of rat traps down there to trap them. What he didn’t know was a feral cat family, mom and kittens, were also living under his house. Oops. And of course some of those rat traps started catching little kitten paws.

Fortunately, we have a wonderful nonprofit feral cat rescue group in the area called CC4C, that responded when the owner of the house called for help.You can find out more about CC4C at their website: http://www.communityconcernforcats.org

The kitten pictured here is the last one they caught. Here’s what Gemma had to say about it:
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The orange kitten gets introduced to her new home

(The post on poisoning ground squirrels is below this posting.)

Well, I did it. Friday afternoon when I got home from work I used all my worldly wiles and at great bodily risk … I CAPTURED the orange kitten and wrestled her into the house.

OK, OK … I reached down and gently picked her up and carried her to the spare bathroom and showed her the new place where she was going to live for the next few weeks. She purred all the way.
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“IS ANYBODY SERVING BREAKFAST AROUND HERE?”

FROM MY SUNDAY NEWSPAPER COLUMN OF SEPT. 28:
On Sept. 11, I wrote a little note here mentioning that I’d spotted a very tiny, skinny orange feral kitten hiding in the tomato jungle in my backyard garden.

What to do? I left a bowl of food and another of water for the starving little gal. That was two-and-a-half weeks ago.
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