Summer of '26 will go down as year of quail - but not on butcher's block

PLUCKED and gutted gamebirds heaped high on a refrigerated butchery counter make for miserable memories of one of the wildlife wonders of the year.

- STUART WINTER

The summer of '26 looks destined to go down as the Year of the Quail, with hundreds of nature lovers thrilled by encountering these elusive visitors from sub-Saharan Africa.

Birders on the Isles of Scilly to the northernmost tip of the Shetlands have been hearing the plaintive song of the quail and, for a lucky few, also catching fleeting views of wings whirring across sun-kissed cereal fields.

Serenading quail are one of the quintessential sounds of open landscapes from the British Isles east to the vast Mongolian steppes.