New Babes

Sunday afternoon we observed a flock of quail and some brand new chicks making the dangerous trek across the neighbors backyard. Unfortunately ,we think the dog took a couple of the chicks.
Once out of the backyard, the survivors had more challenges to come; crossing the raging waters of the gutter, then crossing the street to the safety of our yard.
It was pouring rain and the poor chicks were soaked. The parents quickly ducked under our front shrub, but only one chick was able to nestle under the adults. The other three wandered and struggled until they collapsed on my sidewalk in cold puddles of water. At that point, Robert decided to intervene. He picked up the cold and exhausted chicks and placed them under the shrub with the adults.
A couple hours later he checked on them. The adults were gone and sadly the three little chicks lay there and appeared to be dead. Robert gently scooped them up in his hand and found there to be some life in them. He picked off a couple opportunistic ants and then placed the quail chicks in a cardboard box. Then he put them on the kitchen stove which had just been used to cook Father's Day dinner. The stove was off, but was still nice and warm. After about a half hour on top of the warm stove they were up and running around in the box, chirping away. It seemed a miracle!
Robert pointed out that one of the chicks still had a bit of the nail on the top of the beak, used to break open the egg, so these must have been very recent hatchlings. They were so cute too.
Now that the chicks had revived, he went looking for the parents. With the help of the neighbor, they found some adult quail roosting in the neighbors hedge. Robert placed the chicks inside the base of the hedge and backed away. Within seconds an adult male Quail dropped down and nestled the three little chicks underneath of him. It was the most beautiful and touching thing to witness on a Father's Day!!!