Birds and Berries

I had to share the three following pictures with you due to the cute factor. *To see these cuties in a close up, click the photo to enlarge it.*
Late this afternoon I could hear the repeated cries of quail sounding distressed coming from the backyard. Looking out the window we could see what the commotion was all about. A family of quail had been out foraging and the parents had taken their 5 very young chicks down into our now half filled with sand, man made water pond to explore. When the parents left and the chicks tried to follow they couldn't climb the sides to reach ground level. The parents were calling their young ones, but try as they might, the chicks were just too little to make it out. The parents were getting distraught.

We decided to help the babies out before the neighbour's cat came to check things out. Happy to say that all the chicks were reunited with their parents after we scooped them up. Here's a close up of one of the chicks held in my hubby's hands.


Now onto the berry part of this post. I picked some of these fresh off the bushes that grow over the back fence in our yard. Now as tasty as these berries may look, they are not favourites in our household for fresh eating as all other berries are. So, I used them to make some Kamut/Cornmeal and Saskatoon Berry pancakes for supper. Yum!
These berries are a bit nostalgic for me as I spent part of my youth in Saskatchewan where these berries are picked by the bucketful. I spent many an hour doing just that so that we could enjoy the berries baked into pies or made into jam. If you've ever tried these berries you know that they only resemble blueberries in looks. Saskatoon berries or service berries are quite seedy and nowhere near as soft and juicy as a blueberry. As a kid, I loved these berries, probably in part because I never tasted a fresh blueberry until we moved to BC. My boys don't understand how I could want to eat fresh Saskatoons at all - they say these berries are bird feed! (They have a point as all manner of birds can be found feasting on Saskatoons in our backyard presently).