Hello folks. As the Twain saying goes, “rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated” (I know that was embellished by Paine, but I prefer this version ha). During these last two weeks I’ve joked that I was close to knocking on that heavenly door as we toiled away preparing for the annual Haunted Trail. The stress is off now as the event was held Friday and Saturday night. Still awaiting testimonials, but from the positive feedback we heard over the course of the two nights, I’d say we had a pretty successful haunt. What I can commit to without question is I’m officially exhausted from the stress, work and woeful lack of sleep it took to wrangle the chaos into shape before the guests started arriving. We owe a big thanks to everyone who jumped in to help including family (Ron/Derek), friends (including Brad/Jan) and pretty much all the Intrigued staff (except the lawyer dept that are still upset I took away their “butt copier”). Tomorrow back on the training program for the fast approaching ultra-race – now officially 7 pounds lighter). Struggling to keep my eyes open writing this intro, so I’m going to reacquaint myself with my pillow and let Brad take you on another adventure in one of our favorite cities.
Take it away Brad.. (oh, and big thanks to Brad for keeping Intrigued HQ running smoothly while I was out battling demons and clowns in the woods).
During one of our compressed mornings in Las Vegas, we had tough choices to make. Brian had assigned me three bird locations to visit. However, during day one of the trip, we lost over half a day trying to get a flat tire fixed. (See A New Low – link here) While scheming in the hotel room the night before, Jan and I decided to visit two big locations in the same day. Crazy, I know. What can you do? We had already planned many activities for after birding hours. Early one morning, we headed to Clark County Wetlands on the edge of Las Vegas.
As Jan and I were wandering through the Wetlands, we kept seeing opened Acme wooden crates everywhere. Even though Merlin couldn’t pick it up, I thought I could hear a “meep meep” sound followed quickly by little clouds of dust. Finally, as we were heading to one of the small ponds, we spotted this bird in the shadows, next to little anvil-shaped holes in the dust.
Hit the jump to read more about a certain Coyote’s nemesis!
Greater Roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus) are a bit smaller than I expected. After all, a popular kids cartoon of the 1960s and early 1970s, and nearly perpetual reruns thereafter, lead us to believe that a Roadrunner was every bit as tall as Wile E. Coyote. I can tell you that is not the case. I can also tell you this one was not afraid of us at all, even with the big glass pointed in its general direction. The first photos were zoomed in all the way, just to get something in the tin. But as we moved forward to catch better images, the Roadrunner was moving towards us. Not in an aggressive manner, though I was watching out for falling safes. It was merely trying to get past us to where it wanted to go. I had to keep zooming out with the lens and quickly reached the minimum zoom of my lens range. It just kept walking towards us, unconcerned about humans moving through its space. I was crouched down and delicately balanced, trying to get some eye-to-eye photos, and unable to retreat quickly enough to keep the whole bird in the viewfinder.
The Roadrunner we spotted was every bit of the described two feet from the end of its bill to the tip of its long tail.
We didn’t see the typical airborne foot fluttering followed by the cloud of dust and a noise as it disappeared. (See here for an example.) Nor did we see its legs running in a circular motion as it sped along the ground. It was walking, much like a raven or crow does.
Real Roadrunner calls don’t sound anything like the “meep meep” of the cartoons. They make more of a cooing, or a growling sound, depending on whether they are trying to win a mate or are establishing territory.
Look closely, and you’ll see that this Roadrunner had very long eyelashes, and very intense eyes. The crop on top of its head was mostly matted down and not sticking up like the TV would have us believe. We did catch it elevated just a tiny bit as it ran away past us at the end. Still no clouds of dust though. Like it would really matter, because a Roadrunner can outpace an average human runner (non-Olympian) over moderate distances (15 MPH vs. 8-10 MPH for a human). They are also very adept at avoiding protruding roots on trail runs . . . just sayin’.
When they aren’t running away from coyotes, or falling Acme safes, a pair of Roadrunners will raise 2-6 eggs, once or twice a year. The male brings twigs for the nest, while the female creates a nest 4-8 inches deep and up to 17 inches in diameter, several feet off the ground. Incubation is about 19 days. The parents may continually add to the nest side walls as the hatchlings grow over the course of 2-3 weeks.
Roadrunners have been known to kill rattlesnakes, but usually they do that in pairs. One distracts the snake while the other sneaks in to grab the snake by the head and bashes it against any available anvil-shaped rock. While the cartoon versions of coyotes are no threat, real coyotes are a threat, and are capable of running twice as fast as a roadrunner. Greater Roadrunners will fly when they have to (usually escaping a predator), but prefer to sprint to chase down a meal. Can’t blame them really, with the airline restrictions and security these days.
We were able to capture a photo of the racing stripe above its eye. In better light, it’s a brighter white stripe with bright blue on the front, and fading to “pull me over bright red” on the trailing edge of the stripe.
As we left the area, I thought I saw a “Free Bird Seed” sign pointing past the edge of the trail. We looked, but didn’t find a wily coyote nearby.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Greater Roadrunner photos, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.
In closing…boo!
Life Intrigued 