Teeny Tiny Quail July 8, 2016

Along Limantour Road today heading for the Muddy Hollow trailhead, a friend and I had to break for quail. On our the descent, a family with 15 or so – too many to count – impossibly small quail were making their way across the road, led by one adult and trailed by another.  They couldn’t have been more than one or two inches high, so small and so skittish that they appeared almost as flickers of light. 

As we started up again, we encountered another large quail family, again crossing with mother and father leading and trailing, but this time with slightly larger chicks who took wing. 

Two all-too-brief moments, and so lucky to bear witness.