If it were up to you to name this Scaled Quail x Gambel's Quail hybrid, what would you call it?
Katie Willis, in her own words details the story behind the quail in the photo:
"The first thing I came to understand about Pepper is that he knew his way, with absolute perfection, around grilling up jalapeño chukar poppers.
Over the course of an evening where a group of strangers invited me into their home for a meal, I came to know more.
This group was introduced to me through quail and birddogs.
We laughed, exchanged histories and offered pets to a pair of ever swirling labradors as they passed by the table.
We talked about hunting the Arizona Borderlands, but the thirty plus year age gap left us walking different terrain.
Days later, our paths would cross again. I had been offered the use of the washer/dryer in the casita Pepper and the rest of the group shared each winter.
He saw me come in and excitedly shouted “Katie, Katie, you have to see this!”
He brought forth a plastic grocery bag and pulled from it a small feathered body.
At first glance a Gambels Quail, but the top knot of feather was not a comma.
It was auburn tuft. The flank feathers possessed the characteristic white stripe dividing an elongated ruddy plume but across the breast, a dusty blue edges scalloped and split by a black arrow only found on a Scaled Quail.
“It’s a mix, Katie, a mix!” Pepper shouted as I rolled in my hands a creation I didn’t know could exist.
My word, I wanted him to tell me where he found it. I was overwhelmed with jealousy.
Then I looked up to see the bright sparkle of eyes who witnessed the most pitched battles in the Vietnam War, the animation coursing through a body whose knees and hips had long since become a source of confinement instead of freedom.
There was no better person to hold this magical quail than a man called Pepper.
I drank in one last look, took a terrible cell phone photo and handed it back.
“Thank you for showing me Pepper, that is really quite something.”
#quailforever #quailhunting #scaledquail #gambelsquail #quail
