Button-quail and platelets?

[Tonya Haff <>]

Hi all,

An observation and a question...

First, the observation: a friend and I flushed what I'm fairly sure what a button-quail today at Mt Rogers.  It was tiny, and rat-ran more than any "normal" quail I've ever seen (but I don't know Aussie quail well).    I only got a poor look at it before it flew away, but it looked pretty plain; but no white patches on the outside of its tail/rump as it left.  Looking at the ACT bird list, I wonder if painted button-quail is the most likely suspect?  I'll leave the tick blank for now, of course, but I am curious what species is "common" around there.

Second, from an old posting someone showed me...what is a quail platelet?  We speculated platelets are probably one of the following:

- small plates that quail use to eat breakfast on
- small pieces of quail blood
- small cleared areas where quail dust bathe
- regurgitated pellets
- scat

- or perhaps none of the above?  (or maybe likely none of the above....)

anyway, any insight would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Tonya