A Dramatic Rescue

We are thankfully all moved into the new house. We are just about settled and into our routine. It has been great to be close to so much shopping and our doctors. On Sunday we went to our new ward and received such a great warm welcome. It is an older ward but there are a few kids Emma's age. When we got home I began to prepare dinner and heard a few birds really making a fuss outside my kitchen window. Katie was napping and Emma and Colt were downstairs playing on the computer. I took Emma down a snack and heard more bird noises. I noticed out of the corner of my eye something fly out of the window well. When I went to the window which is about rib height to me. I couldn't believe what I saw stuck in the well, about 20 baby Quail.

 I knew the poor babies needed to get out and be with their momma and daddy. The parent Quail were frantically chirping and they took turns flying down to comfort the babies and fly back up. I called my former brother in-law who is an animal control officer in West Valley and asked him for advise on how to rescue the babies. He said that I could touch them if I need to and that they shouldn't go back in. I planned to have Colt stand outside and make sure the parent Quail didn't attack me and Emma while I took Emma's butterfly net and scooped the babies up and put them in a box. Colt manned his post with the flip video and I prepared to get the babies. Once I got the screen open those babies started trying to come inside and I had to make sure they got safely in the box. Emma stood by and loved seeing the cute little birds in the box and she startled every time one jumped. It took us about 5 minutes to gather everyone up and get ready to release them back outside on the grass.

Emma and I met Colt outside and let the babies out and they ran to their parents. It was so funny to see them all scurry and the parent birds. I imagine the parent birds were scolding the babies or comforting them the way they were chirping at them. The funny thing is when we said goodbye to the birds and went downstairs Colt saw a baby back in the window. (it must have been a boy) I scooped him up with the net and took him outside. When he got out of the net he started running at Emma and she started screaming but I steered him in the right direction. Emma enjoyed the whole experience and was sad that we couldn't keep one for a pet. Colt caught the whole thing on video and uploaded it to youtube. It is a bit long and Colt is not a very good cameraman but the audio is so funny its worth watching.

I will have pictures and a full report of the new house soon I promise.