Quail Hide-away ......

Christmas saw a few changes to the menagerie - Adrian took away the five young Lovebirds (there are another three on the way) and brought us two male quail (no females - quail breed like rabbits, so just two will do, thank you).  Male quail because they will add interest at ground level and they have a lovely call - looking for females which are not going to eventuate.


This led us to the realisation that we should probably provide them with a bit of cover, or at least somewhere they can hide away.  So, we installed two ground cover type plants. 

One, quite green has proved to be a bit of a fizzer as all the birds want to eat the leaves and branches.


The tussock style plant, however, is proving to be ideal for the purpose.  The quail are able to nestle in and under the foliage and this seems to provide them with a nice hide-away where they can rest and relax.

Hopefully, in a week or two, there will still be enough foliage between the two plants to continue providing the necessary protection.

The three new lovebird chicks are getting close to fledging.  Not surprising as it would seem unlikely that there is enough room left in the nesting box - the adults keep adding new filling to the box all the time.  Wouldn't be surprised if at some stage one or more chicks found they couldn't get out of the box.  Some of the new filling, of course, comes from our new plantings.  I guess you can please everyone, just in different ways.