esrosedotblog

Before we moved to the desert, a road runner was a cartoon character with a strange beep sound. Beep Beep.

I can testify that if the bird actually beeps it does so in the privacy of its own habitat and not around people.

This morning, we were waiting for our friend Jim to arrive, out front, and we were joined by a road runner. A male. Someone had seen the hen down the street. They travel in pairs.

He was, as usual, curious as to what we were doing and did not flinch at any human thing that we were doing. Of course, we did not run at him or throw anything. We behaved ourselves.

They are a most peculiar bird and as if to live up to their name, will not fly unless and until they absolutely have to. If they can, they prefer running. They will eventually fly of course but not because they want to.

They talk. A harsh squawk. They fuss. They are very interesting. Nod and bob the head, looking us over. Almost challenging us to get closer.

He stayed there as we watched each other. Stood his ground. Eventually I think that he left when the car we were waiting for arrived. By that time we had lost interest in each other. He had other things to do and so did we.

They are not rare by any means. They are very good for their human neighbors because they eat mice and other good sized animals that we consider pests. Unfortunately, this includes lizards so if you have a road runner or two you will not have lizards.

We used to have a nice big one around our house and I remember the day I saw a road runner take off with him. I still mourn the loss.

I am not kidding. Sadness takes over. But lizards grow back and the road runner has his tastes and so be it.

Labels: birds, desert