Quail on a post, with a personal note

On a trip to Point Reyes National Seashore in April, my wife agreed to wake up with me way before a reasonable hour on a Sunday so that we could be at Chimney Rock for the sunrise to enjoy what has been quoted as one of the best wildflower displays in the Bay Area. (Including the Douglas Irises kissed with the first rays of light shown above.) She’s so wonderfully supportive of my crazy photographic antics, and while she begrudgingly accepts the alarm going off before 4:30am on a weekend, she always enjoys our nature encounters as much as I do. However, she couldn’t help but chuckle at me when I told her that one of my goals for this trip was to capture a male California quail displaying on a pole.

I saw this bird doing exactly what I had envisioned as we were driving out of the park, but we were past it before I had time to stop. Being the ever helpful person that she is, she hopped in the driver’s seat, turned the car around, and took me back to the quail, who was still displaying proudly on his post beside the road. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull off of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard there, so I could only snap off a few shots before we had to move on due to some traffic coming up behind us. However, knowing that I wasn't yet satisfied with what I had, she happily made another set of u-turns so that we could go back for a second round of shots. And that, my friends, is a sign of true love! (This post is in commemoration of our first date, 9 incredible years ago today!)