Road Runners-Do they run the roads?

Well, do roadrunners run the roads? Kind of yes and no. We live next to an old highway and I have never seen them run along side the highway. But, they will run real fast across it. Scaring the heck out of you because they run so close to your vehicle. I guess thats why they have to be darn fast!

Well, I woke up this morning thinking about road runners! I of course turned on the coffee pot, the first thing. Sat down in my favorite chair in the living room and looked out the window into my back yard.

Once again the old dead cottonwood tree caught my eye. It was dead when we moved in and is still very much dead today. But this cottonwood tree is mainly still dead in the backyard because of the important role it provides. The birds just flock to it.

Yep! You see this tree is one of the tallest trees around. It provides an ideal vantage point for all the little birdies and road runners to see far and wide across the desert, if anything is approaching them.

Well this morning there wasn't a roadrunner in the tree, but I have seen roadrunners in that tree many a time.

This spring what we had for the roadrunner count, was two females and one male. Lucky bird ha ha! You could look up near the middle top of that old dead cottonwood tree and there would be your roadrunner.

He's a funny kind of awkward looking bird. I bet many of you have never seen a roadrunner before.

Anyway this male roadrunner has been in this tree, just a strutting his stuff. Flapping his wings real wide showing off for the two lady roadrunners, which one of them had set up a nest in the huge cypress bushes that are right behind that old cottonwood.

The males have a really neat pretty band of bright orange strips on each side of their face. This stripe is kind of glow in the dark if you know what I mean. One of my dogs (Jessy) has taken an interest in this bird .

One day we were amazed to look out and see this roadrunner on the ground about eight feet from Jessy. This funny looking bird was having a stare down with Jessy. He was actually studying the dog.

You know Jessy returned the favor and proceeded to check out this funny roadrunner. Kind of comical to watch. Must not have been that birds day to die. Because he was being checked out by a young eight month old puppy. Jessy just abounds in typical lively puppy antics.

If I had not seen this peaceful encounter with my dog and the roadrunner, I would not have believed it could happen.

We live in New Mexico in the desert. Guess what? The New Mexico state bird is a road runner! And no I don't think a roadrunner would live in a bird house.

We have not seen the female roadrunners that were ever so busy collecting all kinds of dried plant material and whatever else they could find to build their nest in weeks now.

My husband and I were talking about this one night and we all the sudden remembered these Whip snakes that we have around here. They have been seen in these huge Cypress bushes around here.

So we both speculated that they may have wound their way up those old bushes and ate the roadrunner eggs, that were there. So, now we have not seen the females for some time,probably decided it was not the best place to make a nest.

Seems like the male is still with us, we do see him quite often. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you they make quite a loud cackling call. Which is funny sounding too for a funny looking bird.