Yesterday at around dusk I walked out into the side yard. There was a quail standing in the walkway. I wondered if it was the mother quail I’d seen out with her chicks the day before. Just as the quail started getting nervous and prepared to flap its wings, my focus shifted and I saw the others. There were thirty adult quail scattered all across the yard. The first bird’s flight triggered fifteen seconds of chaos. Thirty birds rustled away in every direction.