Quail, on the Way to Work

A family of Gambel's quail, sprinting away from the morning bicycle commuter

I've tried to catch photos of the wily, fast-moving Gambel's quail that I see darting about the underbrush on my way to work in the morning. Tried to record their silly chortling call, tried to capture their high speed running retreats, but those things are fast! This husband and wife were scooting along just a little bit slower due to the five little ones in tow, but you don't make a life on the ground by moving slow. If I took some more time out of my commute, perhaps by parking the bike and sitting for a while, I might have better luck capturing them. But they seem to favor the long grass going to seed on the mornings when I have an appointment to get to. Well, the concept of five little quail babies munching breakfast with mom and dad out along my commute route is excellent, along with the bunnies who were also out in number, even if my quail photographing skills are not peaking. Yet. I am in quail photographic training, though, planning to do a "century" soon, which entails sitting in a patch of cholla cactus in the desert until 100 quail run past a few feet away. A quail century is bound to result in some better shots. Until then, please accept these, my humble attempts at grabbing quick glimpses of the quail family peacefully browsing.

Not really quail. Just checking if anyone looks at these.