and his wife.
When I sat outside yesterday morning, suddenly a chorus of beeping noises broke out all over my yard. The sentinel ground squirrels were raising the alarm and I thought a coytote was on the way to drink some water from my leaky faucet, which I haven't yet shut off.
No, it was the roadrunner and his wife. I didn't have my phone so this is an old picture. Of the wife. He's much flashier, of course, and I looked for his picture, but couldn't find it.
Curious as to why the squirrels were concerned with two birds, I asked Google.
This is what I learned:
Greater Roadrunner Feeding Her Babies Newborn Groundsquirrels
You may not want to watch it, but everyone has to eat and nature can look cruel to us humans.
But as D. H. Lawrence said: "I've never seen a wild thing sorry for itself."
When we first moved here, we had a large cottonwood tree in our front yard and I actually saw a roadrunner couple raid a bird's nest. I believe I interfered with nature and chased them away.
Closeup, they are intimidating birds with their very large and dangerous looking beaks.
They have several roadrunner videos you can watch on youtube. I read one story, where a naturalist was talking about the fact that he had never seen a roadrunner, and really hoped to be able to encounter one some day.
That made me feel so lucky to have my resident couple.
Yesterday was my best day for watching animals.
I saw: One very skinny coyote, who did not look well; the road runner and his wife; many, many ground squirrels; ravens, and a variety of small birds; a covey (flock) of California quail; about five Jack rabbits (hares in Europe); a couple of cottontail rabbits; and one fence lizard.
Some of these I saw because I was outside, several through my windows and then outside as I walked out to watch them.
No luck with taking pictures.
