He’s a big animal lover (too). I hate that. Surely, there are still some around stock tanks.
That’s wild. That sounds vaguely familiar, but I was never really discouraged from handling them. Of course, critters have instinct & maybe it was because I was so young (<6).
zeguma- Oh, that wouldn’t be good. I/ he always wondered if they’d go back in the opposite direction (where they were coming from). Still, ya can’t just leave them there.
Tatt- lol I thought you’d named the iron one (stranger things have happened).
The ones I played with lived in our yard. We had a *bunch* of them. The babies seem like, now, were about the size of a quarter. They really are charming creatures. Thank you. God Bless you, too!
TexasFossil- I guess you’re out in/ by West Texas. I’m really glad to hear that they’re still around. Y’All made me look it up. I didn’t know they ate ants. Wonder if they’d eat “crazy ants”?
My aunt & uncle used to live in Clovis, NM (Cannon AFB) & when we used to go visit them, my grandaddy & uncle always went quail hunting. YUM! I know there were quite a few quail between SA & Del Rio/ Eagle Pass & south of here because we always used to see them toddling alongside of the road when driving to & from claims- families of them, I guess, with little ones. They’re pretty cute. This was more than 10 years ago, though.
We used to have a lot of Plovers (Curlews?) in parking lots at night, here, too. They’re still on the beach, I can tell you that.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an Asian Dove. There aren’t nearly as many White Wings around as there used to be. (Or pigeons- a Blessing!) The Woodpeckers have shown up, though, & I’m happy about that. I’ve only seen adults (more red than yellow- unless I have it backward) so far. I’d say they’re my favorites, but I have too many to pick one bunch.
We have white wing doves here too. Not as many as Asian Doves. The Asian doves look like native mourning doves, but they are much larger and have a black semicircle across one side of the neck.
Curlews >
http://www.birds-of-north-america.net/images/long-billed-curlew-9.jpg
Eurasian Dove>
See post 93 for the kind of ant that the horned lizard eats.