We live adjacent to a small wash -- scrub bushes, wild lupines and sages. It's full of birds, especially quail. They are everywhere, bobbing their little heads and generally making us laugh. We have turned our yard into a quail habitat. We've had at least two quail nests among our raised-bed gardens every year for the past five or six. The "crow" of the little males wakes us in the morning and entertains us late in the day as they call the covey to roost.
Last year new neighbors moved in. They've got several young kids and they actually own the wash. It's not develop-able so we didn't worry. This spring when the severe cold of winter was over we began to see their kitty out and about. He's even belled. But I also began to notice that every time I saw him he was carrying a bird in his mouth. Then I began seeing him in the wash hunting, all day.
Today I realized it's been weeks since I heard a quail in our yard or out in the wash. They no longer roost in our juniper trees. The quail are gone. No little babies running around this spring, no hens running a crazy zig zag path down the driveway followed by a bevy of babies. Nothing. One kitty has wiped out what was probably 60-100 quail that lived in and around our yard for 10 years.
More than a month ago I gently brought up the issue with the neighbor and she just sort of shrugged saying she couldn't do anything about it.
So today I'm sad. A lovely part of the place we live is gone, perhaps for good. This isn't a condemnation of anybody or anything, just sort of a mourning for something that brought joy to my life and now is gone. My husband asked me not to talk about it -- it makes him too sad and nothing we do can change the situation. So I'm posting here and trying not to cry.
Sunny