Through a Glass, Brightly

Ms Town Mouse is travelling afar and I'm enjoying her amazing photos of stone arches and distant vistas. Meanwhile, I sit at my desk and look outside my window, doing worthwhile but non-garden projects (hence absence of posts from Country Mouse lately), and sometimes there's a lot going on. I snapped these photos through my window over a 15 minute period. You see the ubiquitous bunnies, one bunny in this case, peacefully co-existing with a covey of quail, young and adult, and one little wrentit (I think) who eluded my lens, so I include just one shot. I guess our rat terrier Duncan was taking a nap! I did see him one day with funny looking sticks coming out the side of his mouth. What've you got Duncan? quoth I. Guilty ears, drooping head. It was a baby quail, actually unharmed, gently held in his mouth, little feet sticking out sideways. (I put it far below his boundary on a leaf where I heard other quail nearby, and hoped for the best.)

You can see the guard, always a male (with the more striking plumage and topknot thingy) standing on the rock pile keeping an eye out. I bet the bunny feels secure too, under his watchful eye.

By the way what they are eating is a small annual ground covering weed that I've been tearing my hair out over. It took over in the open area where I attempted a "meadow" planting that failed. But when I see how much the wildlife enjoy eating it, then I don't feel so bad.