A Quail of a Story

One day in the late summer of 1999 I was bushhogging a six-acre pasture for a friend.

I had completed several loops around the pasture when a male quail came out of the tall grass and stopped about twenty feet from the tractor. I immediately stopped the tractor and turned off the engine.

First I must tell you that I talk to animals as if they were part of the family, and sometimes you might be surprised at what they will do.

I knew what the quail was trying to tell me, and I began talking to him. I asked him several times to call the female out where I could see her so I wouldn’t run over her.

Nothing happened, so I started the tractor and proceeded mowing the pasture in first gear and looking for the female. After a few hundred feet, I increased speed.

I made two more loops around the pasture, and each time I came back to that same spot, there was the male, just standing there. Each time I turned off the engine and talked to him, but the female never appeared. I knew she was in the tall grass, so I mowed very slowly.

On the third loop, still moving slowly, I saw the female at the edge of the tall grass.

Immediately I stopped and turned off the engine. Following behind the female were fourteen small baby quail, the last four barely able to maneuver through the grass. Then I started to talk to the female.

As I walked to the front of the tractor, I was looking in the tall grass for any babies that might be having problems.

I was less than ten feet from the female when the male appeared.

I started talking to both of them, telling them they had a pretty family and to take care of the babies. The whole time I was talking to them, they just stood there looking at me as if they understood every word I said.

Then I went back to the tractor, started the engine, and continued mowing the pasture. As I went by the family, they didn’t move, knowing that I wouldn’t harm them.

When I completed the next loop, the family was nowhere to be found.

Four or five days later, I had to mow a different part of the same property. I was approaching a burn pile when I noticed the male and female quail and all fourteen babies next to the pile.

I stopped the tractor and talked to them again, explaining that they were in the tractor’s way.

Again, they stood still and seemed to listen. Then they led the babies over to a safe place and I continued with the mowing.

Two weeks later, I was mowing the pasture again. For some reason I looked to the right, and less than twenty feet from the tractor were the male and female in flight, going as slowly as they could. About twenty feet behind them were the babies, all fourteen of them, in flight.

They crossed over in front of me and landed in the corner of the pasture and waited for me.