Of Lizards and Quails

I'm not doing too much with soaping today, mostly doing housework from which I need a break! :)

Even though we live in a development with houses fairly close together, we still see quite a bit of wildlife from the windows. At this time of the year, mostly we see lizards and quails.

The quails have done a little better this year as far as reproducing. Last year we didn't have very many baby quails around here because it was SO dry. This year, there's a few more. On almost a daily basis, I see at least one family of the three that are in the neighborhood. One family was just mom, pop, and one baby. They started pretty early because by the time I saw them, the "baby" was a teenager almost fully grown. I haven't seen them lately, although I have been seeing just a male and female without young'uns, so I wonder if that is the mom and pop of that family and the youngster is missing. :( Another family I see started out with 8 little ones. The last time I saw them there was only 7 little ones. They are still pretty small. And the third family I see, just started coming around this neighborhood. It is the pop, and 5 teenagers. The mom is missing.

It's a hard life for these quails!

As for the lizards, well, you can't take a walk without one of the little fellows darting across your path. The cute little zebra tail lizards seem to be the most plentiful, but there are plenty of other larger (6 to 10 inch long) lizards. I haven't tried to learn the different kinds of lizards, so I can't id them at this point.

The little guy on the rock is a zebra tail.