We spent seven days visiting Bill and Alice in Arizona. We didn’t manage any hikes since Bill’s health has become a concern and he’s forced to use a walker, but we did go out for dinner a couple of times and had dinner with Kel and his friend another night. We even managed to get in a couple of short walks.
Since I knew we wouldn’t be getting out much, I brought several of books to read. I brought them home unread and spent most of my free time birdwatching. Alice has set up several fountains, three hummingbird feeders, and a feeder in her backyard that attracts an amazing number of birds.
There were a lot of Gambel’s Quail in the yard that seemed largely indifferent to anyone who stayed on the patio. I. tried to get a shot of a male and female together, but the Quail were so close that I could never get a shot where both male and female were included.
There are definitely times when I wish I was using one of my zoom lenses instead of an 840mm setup, and this was one of them. Actually, it was much more common to see males and females together than one by itself. This was a typical situation,
but I had to use the Panorama setting in Photoshop to join two sequential shots.
Truthfully, though, the male is just more photogenic than the female so I concentrated on getting the best possible shot of one of them.
There were a lot of shots to go through, but this is my favorite.
I especially like the background and that the eye and beak are clear and distinct from the rest of its head. I don’t think I could have asked for a better pose.
Very photogenic quail!