Quail Canyon Golf Course

I don’t have strong feelings about cars, as long as they run. Ours was due for an oil change this morning, and rather than put it off any longer, I took it up to the corner where they usually do our work. Turned out it needed a few other little things, so I grabbed my car binoculars and headed down into the wash that borders Quail Canyon Golf Course.Unlike most places with such names, this golf course actually has Gambel’s Quail, lots of them, and early on a cool morning, not too many golfers. There were Vermilion Flycatchers, three or more, at the small pond, and I was pleased to find a pair of Black-tailed Gnatcatchers back in the palo verdes of the wash. And not until I left did I notice the signs warning that anyone on the golf course would be charged a “greens fee.” I knocked on the door of the little clubhouse, but no one was there—I wasn’t planning on volunteering the fee, but thought maybe if I talked to them I could get some kind of permission to bird on odd occasions like this one. Looks like a place to keep an eye on, barely a ten-minute walk from home.