Winging It

ONE OF THE DELIGHTS of spring in Corrales is watching families of wild quail. Both Scaled and Gambel’s Quail hatch large clutches—as many as 18 hatchlings the size of a quarter skitter after Mom as they learn to forage. The newborns can’t fly, so they must run lickity-split to keep up. Proud Papa perches on a fencepost to watch for predators.
    Inevitably, one baby runs left when everyone else runs right, and gets lost. The straggler instinctively knows he is doomed alone, and peeps mightily to be found. Since I am a permitted wild bird rehabilitator, these miserable orphans often find their way to me. I gather the babies into adopted families and care for them until they are self-sufficient and can be released.
    Babies need lots of bug protein to supplement their diet of crushed grain and seed, so they can grow quickly. Newly hatched quail instinctively grab at anything that moves. They run away from the other chicks so it won’t be stolen, then peck at the wiggly thing. This serves them well in the wild—they hide under a leaf and figure out what it is and how to eat it. Skill is required to learn to eat a mealworm from one end, instead of grabbing at the middle and trying to fold it.
    As the Food Lady, I deliver a pile of tiny live mealworms several times a day. At first each chick grabs one and takes off running. Picture the Keystone Kops in fluffy coats, ten of them racing around an aquarium searching for a private spot to examine his treasure in peace. The chicks finally slow down enough to gulp their mealworms, oh yum, then scurry back to snatch another. Watching this is better than anything on TV.  

  By day three, some chicks will grab a worm and run six times around the enclosure before eating it, while others have learned to run around just once, eat, then go back for more. Eventually one chick figures out that by standing still beside the worm pile, she can gobble several worms one after another before they are all gone. By around day five, it is clear that this gobbler is growing faster. Soon she is the largest, while the most desperate runner becomes the runt. In other words, the one who changed her strategy weighs more because she’s getting more protein.
    I find this very interesting. Some chicks cling conservatively to their instinctive behavior, while others are more flexible. In this environment, where chicks are free from predators, the advantage goes to those able to adapt. In the wild, however, that flexibility might mean becoming someone’s lunch.
    We know that human children raised in the same family can have very different personalities, and that the puppies in one litter have varying temperaments. Nevertheless, when I first started raising orphan birds, I was surprised to discover that the songbird chicks in one clutch also have personal traits.
    In a nest of four House Finches, for instance, one bold chick will be the first to try every new task, while a sibling will be last, reluctant to self-feed, fledge, or fly. Some variation is built in. This is the very mechanism that allows evolution. Depending on conditions, some traits will succeed, while others will create a disadvantage. We are each very much the same, and yet also a little different. And so we change along with our worlds.

Mikal Deese runs the Corrales-based wildlife rescue On a Wing and a Prayer, which cares for orphaned, injured, and sick wild birds. The nonprofit group depends on donations, which all go directly to animal care. Contact her at 897-0439 or mikaldeese@aol.com.