Quail on California Avenue

 

No matter how frustrated I get in my work, with my family, my life; Nature always sends me a message reminding me that life is good. Recently that message came in the form of California Quail.

I live and work in Norco, California. We are a rural community by National Standards as we only have half the population required to be considered urban. Most of our 25000 residents live on ½-acre to 5-acre lots. The vast majority of the land in Norco is agriculturally zoned and horses, chickens, cattle and large gardens are commonplace here. Compared to the urban communities that surround us like Riverside, Corona and Eastvale, Norco is a rural, small town.

Due to its recent history as an animal keeping community, very little natural native habitat occurs within the boundaries of our small town. The beautiful Santa Ana River lines our Northern border and is rich in riparian habitat but the coastal sage scrub and grasslands that once stretched out from that ribbon of emerald green willow and cottonwood forest is now nearly extinct itself.

I farm on a 2.5 acre piece of property on California Avenue, a 2-lane thruway connecting Riverside residents to Interstate 15 which bisects Norco. The farm feels natural most of the time, as it is mostly open with grass paddocks soon to feed a cow and pastured egg operation, vegetable production and small orchard. We manage the farm organically and regeneratively, leaving as much cover on the soil as possible, use lots of mulch, and maintain living roots in the ground to pull greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere and store them in the soil. This is, however, working land.

We will install hedgerows this Fall that will add significant habitat to our farm and attract beneficial wildlife, but it is not yet there. In short, the farm provides little native, natural habitat outside of a couple 25 year old Coast Live Oaks trees a previous land owner planted for shade.

We have installed bluebird houses on the property and even put an owl box up hoping to attract a barn owl to assist in the control of ground squirrels that have gone unchecked on this property for at least 15 years before we moved on to it.

The majority of the properties that abut the farm or are nearby are similar in nature, and exist in varying degrees of management. Most have livestock, horses in particular but some are just minimally maintained open space.

One of the latter properties is just across the street. On Friday, after fighting with squirrels who are destroying my zucchini and yellow squash crops, I was locking up the farm at the end of the day, I looked across California Avenue and noticed small birds scurrying along the edge of a brush pile under a pepper trees on said property. Immediately, I though someone’s button quail escaped the coop.

But then my history as a field Naturalist came back and I could tell that this was, in fact, a covey of the State Bird- California Quail. What a joy!

After living in the town for 15 years and spending the majority of that time outdoors and on the land, this is the first time that I can recall having seen California Quail in Norco. I sat in my truck and peered through the windshield watching as a father, mother and at least a half dozen babies darted in and out of the tall grass and protection of the pepper trees low hanging limbs.

I am sure I had a great big grin on my face and must have looked like a child in a candy store. As the covey finally disappeared into the brush and pulled into traffic, all I could think is everything is going to be ok. Nature still bats last!