I was going to ask, "scrambled or hard boiled," but I guess the point is moot. ;-) How long did she incubate? I'm guessing ~3 weeks? 17 eggs is a really big clutch for Gambel's. Could you have had 2 hens deposit eggs in the same nest? Birds don't get much cuter than Gambel's chicks. How lucky you are to have had them. Zill

You can tell it's nesting season when: * the males stop calling from the trees and high spots to attract mates. * the large groups break up into pairs or triads (one female 2 males) * you don't see the females in the early morning feeding rounds If they have the same habits as the related Gambel's quail, you will not see the females early in the mornings. They wait to leave the nest when it's warm enough that their eggs won't get chilled.

We provide plenty of water for all our birds. I checked today, it must have been a female but from the front, only her breast was showing. There is no rock or muchroom there today. We have two alleys, they are on either side of the wash that runs past our house and crosses under the street next to us. I used to see the gambol quail leading their babies to our yard to feast on cactus seeds and drink water. The city cleared out the plant life in the alleys, down to the ground, and we have seen almost no gambol quail. I went out and stopped traffic once to let them across the street. Am glad it was a pair, there have been few of them, too.

Thanks Jule and Bern! Julie, first of all, it is great to hear from you! Yes, the golf course will be out of service for quite a while I'm sure, I just wish I could have gotten a picture of it when the deep water hit it, but that part of town was cut off and I would have had to drive miles around to get to that side, but I had things to do. I helped the 90 year old man that lives across from me about a mile away, the last two days, but I don't have a picture of his house to post, maybe later. The picture of the barn that Bern commented on is the next property over from this man and that was his house, he lived in that barndominium or whatever they call them now. I think that is great that people in Wisconsin, and people all over the USA, are sending donations and much needed items here. I guess there are still a whole lot of good people out there yet. :) The "Road May Flood" sign kind of says it all. The underpass is about a block long, and it was flooded on the other side all the way to the river bridge which is another 2 blocks away. Bern, that guy with the pole barn house already got flooded in the rains we had back in April. In fact, there was more damage from that rain in the rural areas than this hurricane rain. In that rain, I had water in my whole yard and under my entire house. Good thing my house is on blocks otherwise it would have been damaged by that high water. Anyway, that pole barn man had just finished building a levy or berm about ten days before the storm hit, to keep water away from his house, and then this happened to him. In April, the electric company was leasing his land to store trucks and old light poles, the 60 footers, on his property. There were about 60 of those huge long light poles that floated away never to be seen again, not to mention the ruined trucks and dozers and other equipment. The man had an RV, a school bus, and a tractor and frontend loader, which were all ruined. I have a few more pictures, but if you go on YouTube and type in La Grange Flood or Columbus Texas Flood, you will see aerial video clips of the massive water coverage. BTW, to whom it may concern, I'm having problems with my email account so I haven't been able to access it for about 2 weeks now, just saying... Thanks again everyone and I will see what other pics I have. Stay safe everyone.