NY Coturnix
Songster
Last Thursday I was off work for Veterans' Day and with all the rain our area of NYS has been getting I kind of fell behind getting the quail hutches winterized. Plan was to remove the internal divider plywood walls and replace with hardware 1/2 hardware cloth walls. I'm going to put heat lamps in and with the hardware cloth walls it will be easier to keep the water from freezing as bad as it did last year.
Anyway, while doing this I was taking the quail out of the pens and keeping them a separate box so that they didn't get mixed with their neighbors. While putting them back one flew like a rocket past my head and made a break for it. I've had them get out before and typically its the 6 to 10 foot "jump" and I just follow them for 1 or 2 jumps and pick them up and put them back. You get the occasional chase that takes me under some bushes but I've never had an issue catching them. Not this time. This one flew by my head like a rocket. My mother was helping and saw that it had cleared the pens and over a brush line into the creek that runs behind my house. We searched for hours and finally game up thinking he probably hit the water that was flowing pretty good and was washed away. Thursday night and all day Friday our area was hit with heavy rain, creek was now roaring. Woke up to my wife looking through the bushes in a downpour hoping to find her. Nothing. Night temps dropped into the 20's by Sunday and Monday so we figured we'd lost her. Tuesday night I was in my turkey coop when I heard a very loud chirping sound coming from near our deck. It's around 6 so in the NE it may as well be midnight but I was tracking it with the flashlight on my cell phone. Looked in the bushes for maybe 10 min and just as I was going to give up pow and a bird blew right past my face. My wife saw it go I just heard it. Anyone that's ever seen a coturnix quail fly knows I'm tracking the wrong bird. This was my head height for maybe 75 feet straight into the darkness where we lost sight. We feel like maybe its her but assume we're hoping to much and I probably flushed a grouse or dove or something. Yesterday my mom swung through my house at noon and says she saw the quail near the driveway and almost stepped on it when it flew off toward the bushes. I'm like it was not the quail, you're seeing things. Its been almost a week, freezing at night, heavy rain, and they have NO survival skills. Last night I'm feeding the quail and hear the chirping again on the other side of the house. Its almost 6 again and dark but we have the deck lights on so I just go over and stand and listen. After 5 min and in mostly dark I see what looks like a miniature duck blow past me and I follow to the area I think it landed. We have another 5 min wait and bam there it goes again. This time about 75 feet down and across the road. I can only make out a shape and have a good idea of the 20 foot circle where I saw it hit and roll. I'm screaming for my wife to come help but don't dare look away because I know I'd never find it again. I get to a brush patch down the road and kind of circle it when it then flies across the road. This flight looks more like I've seen before so I think holy cow I think it really is her. This time I get about 5 feet from her and now have my cell phone flashlight on her and to my shock its her. I get on the down the lawn side so I can at least force her back toward my wife is now coming down the lawn to help. She flushed one more time as my hand was about 5 inches from grabbing her but this time she flew into my leg and landed right next to me. After 6 nights out in wild I caught her. She feels like she's about half the size she was and I have no idea how she avoided the feral barn cats from up the road for that long but she's now safe and sound back in her hutch.
I told my wife she's a thanksgiving miracle.
Anyway, while doing this I was taking the quail out of the pens and keeping them a separate box so that they didn't get mixed with their neighbors. While putting them back one flew like a rocket past my head and made a break for it. I've had them get out before and typically its the 6 to 10 foot "jump" and I just follow them for 1 or 2 jumps and pick them up and put them back. You get the occasional chase that takes me under some bushes but I've never had an issue catching them. Not this time. This one flew by my head like a rocket. My mother was helping and saw that it had cleared the pens and over a brush line into the creek that runs behind my house. We searched for hours and finally game up thinking he probably hit the water that was flowing pretty good and was washed away. Thursday night and all day Friday our area was hit with heavy rain, creek was now roaring. Woke up to my wife looking through the bushes in a downpour hoping to find her. Nothing. Night temps dropped into the 20's by Sunday and Monday so we figured we'd lost her. Tuesday night I was in my turkey coop when I heard a very loud chirping sound coming from near our deck. It's around 6 so in the NE it may as well be midnight but I was tracking it with the flashlight on my cell phone. Looked in the bushes for maybe 10 min and just as I was going to give up pow and a bird blew right past my face. My wife saw it go I just heard it. Anyone that's ever seen a coturnix quail fly knows I'm tracking the wrong bird. This was my head height for maybe 75 feet straight into the darkness where we lost sight. We feel like maybe its her but assume we're hoping to much and I probably flushed a grouse or dove or something. Yesterday my mom swung through my house at noon and says she saw the quail near the driveway and almost stepped on it when it flew off toward the bushes. I'm like it was not the quail, you're seeing things. Its been almost a week, freezing at night, heavy rain, and they have NO survival skills. Last night I'm feeding the quail and hear the chirping again on the other side of the house. Its almost 6 again and dark but we have the deck lights on so I just go over and stand and listen. After 5 min and in mostly dark I see what looks like a miniature duck blow past me and I follow to the area I think it landed. We have another 5 min wait and bam there it goes again. This time about 75 feet down and across the road. I can only make out a shape and have a good idea of the 20 foot circle where I saw it hit and roll. I'm screaming for my wife to come help but don't dare look away because I know I'd never find it again. I get to a brush patch down the road and kind of circle it when it then flies across the road. This flight looks more like I've seen before so I think holy cow I think it really is her. This time I get about 5 feet from her and now have my cell phone flashlight on her and to my shock its her. I get on the down the lawn side so I can at least force her back toward my wife is now coming down the lawn to help. She flushed one more time as my hand was about 5 inches from grabbing her but this time she flew into my leg and landed right next to me. After 6 nights out in wild I caught her. She feels like she's about half the size she was and I have no idea how she avoided the feral barn cats from up the road for that long but she's now safe and sound back in her hutch.
I told my wife she's a thanksgiving miracle.
She was mad that I didn't bring her in the house for the night rather than putting her back in the pen.
