Quentin Quail

My favorite bird in the summer garden in northern California is the California Quail. They are such cuties! They have beautiful coloration on their feathers - especially the male and their little topknot feathers are so comical. But their best feature is their love of running! They prefer running to flying and their little tiny skinny legs move soooooo fast. Apparently they have been clocked running at 12 mph!

Anyhow, this year we have been watching a couple of quails in our garden- a male and a female - Quentin and Queenie. My husband and I have commented on how frequently we see them...we can be looking out of the window in the office and see them, then go outside and they are already somewhere else and.....Just amazing. And they are scratching around for food in the ground...then run fast. Occasionally Quentin will sing for us as he sits on top of one of our seats. Well the other day we went to walk down for our newspaper and said "hi" to Quentin and Queenie, then walked a little further and saw them again, then again.......And suddenly it hit us! We have Quentin and Queenie 1, 2 and 3!!!! We have now seen 3 pairs of Quentin and Queenies in the garden all at one time - not just one pair that runs around the house all the time!!!!!

So I made a necklace in fine silver of Quentin - coz he makes me smile!!! I hand formed his shape in metal clay, and added fine silver wire for his top knot and legs...but then of course, had to put him in running shoes! Well, if he runs at 12 mph he needs them. So hope you enjoy my Quentin and that he makes you smile :=D Our fingers are crossed that the Queenies are nesting somewhere and one day we will have to come up with lots of Q names for babies. The babies are sooooo tiny - just adorable.

The picture below is of quail sculptures in our front garden. The best sight - which unfortunately I didn't catch on the camera, was then Quentin sat on the topknot of the large quail!