I suppose you could say it is a fitting time for getting things “wrapped” up. All the excitement of seeing the festive colored boxes with their pretty bows bringing joy to kids and adults. The catalyst for this heartwarming affair, a jolly big-waisted fellow that shimmies down the chimney (or alternative burglary entry point into your homestead). Unfortunately, my coal colored gift this holiday year reflects some bad actions earlier in the year. To be exact, October 12th, one of those days that now takes its rightful place among my other noteworthy “mishaps”. The ankle specialist wasn’t wearing festive clothes yesterday, but he did take the time to wrap my gift in a shiny shade of black coal…ho, ho, ho, you are the proud recipient of a non-displaced double fracture! Grinch said WHAT!?!?! Now, in my joint’s defense I need to apologize for all the hurtful comments hurled at it since race-day. It was not faking it for sympathy, a stunt that it has pulled many times in the past – nope, it was damaged and now I am the proud receiver of a black boot that will loudly proclaim I’m damaged goods to anyone we come upon during the next 6 weeks. No running, of course, no long birding hikes (we’ll see) and beach time is likely right out. My Texas trip just took a mighty blow thanks in large part to the first orthopedic surgeon I went to in early November telling me it was nothing, take two aspirin and find your own way out of the office. Lost 4 weeks of recovery time and I’ve been doing chiro visits and physical therapy that was likely making it worse – shocked that it didn’t displace as a result of all the yanking and twisting. While I try to move on to the acceptance phase, decided it was an appropriate time to feature the totem animal for all runners.
Hit the jump for some looks at a bird that probably has more running shoes in its closet than I do..and that is saying a LOT.
I’ve always said the Greater Roadrunner is misnamed. Not the “runner” portion and I can even live with the “greater” aspect even though there is no comparative species in the States. The troubling part is the road aspect. Based on my experiences Wile E.’s nemesis prefers to run on dusty desert stretches more akin to us ultra-trail runners (I can still put myself in that category even though I’m temporarily hobbled right?).
Fit, trim, fast, efficient, flashes of color and well, can be a bit goofy at the right angle – yeah, it’s one of us for sure or rather, we are part of their flock ha!
The Greater Roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico, although I have seen it far more often in Arizona, Texas and Nevada. Each of those states have gone a different direction opting for the Cactus Wren, the Northern Mockingbird and out of the blue, the Mountain Bluebird respectively. The Roadrunner in these first shots was taken last January in Saguaro National Park outside Tucson, Arizona (link here). Hmmmm, I should probably clarify that for the locals – make that Saguaro National Park WEST (link here). As you can see from the provided link, Saguaro NP is split into two with Tucson nestled in between. The Rincon Mountain District sits to the east where the place we visited, The Tucson Mountain District (TMD), sits to the northwest of the second largest city in Arizona.
Unfortunately, we did not have a lot of time to explore TMD when we were there with Ron earlier in the year. It was January, so we did not have to deal with the heat, quite the opposite, we were being chased by a snow storm as we traveled across the state. With the hours available, we did manage to walk the trails around the Red Hills Visitor Center and then went most of the way up the King Canyon Trailhead. Red Hills was a nice easy walk, King Canyon took some heavy breaths and would not recommend if you are not in some decent level of shape. It is at the visitor center we spotted this Roadrunner “Humaning” us as we traversed the trail – it had a tiny pair of binoculars it would pull out from under its feathers from time to time before excitedly jotting something down in a tiny book.
Roadrunners are perfectly colored to blend into the desert environment. The matching shade of browns/tans, the black in their tails and crown to break up the profile and broken white lines to blend in with the sand and rocky floor. There is an easy tell if you happen to get a glimpse of the side of their head. There is a bare spot of skin showing behind their eye with a blue and red hue that varies in intensity as it transitions in and out of breeding season.
These next shots come from a specimen found on our visit to the Clark County Wetlands Park in Las Vegas, NV (link here).
Having grown annoyed by the snow on our tails we pulled anchor and made our way to Las Vegas – we can stay at home if we want to enjoy that cold, fluffy white stuff ha.
I’ve mentioned before, our go-to place to bird in the Vegas area is Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve (link here). Take note, that place closes at 2:00pm, so we always make our way to the nearby Clark County Wetlands Park to finish off the day.
This particular specimen was acting more like a typical Roadrunner and wasn’t letting me get too close – either that or it was mocking me with how fast they can run compared to me – harsh! Curious, did some research – they top out at 20mph and that is across varied terrain. If I try to go half that speed on our local trails I take a Pig-Pen envying dirt bath. It did finally give me good look at the colorful patches behind the eye.
Out of shots for this series – let’s see if there are any tidbits from Cornell worth passing on. In addition to being permanently inked on my own leg, the Roadrunner is revered within Native American and Mexican heritage in recognition of “their strength, speed and endurance” – all traits highly regarded in the trail running community. Linda will be elated to hear this one – in addition to Lizard toes and Scorpion fingers, they also enjoy Rattlesnake legs (assuredly taste like Chicken). I actually laughed at Cornell’s description here thinking Linda had a hand in it. “As one [Roadrunner] distracts the Snake by jumping and flapping, [another Roadrunner] sneaks up and pins its head, then bashes the Snake against a rock.” I have visions of it holding that Snake by the rattler and just windmilling the head into a nearby boulder until its legs fall off. Best of all, if the Roadrunner can’t swallow the victim whole, it will walk around with the tail sticking out of its bill until it can. Did you just hear that thump!?! That was Linda fainting. Better wrap this up and get her back on her feet.
Take care everyone, and hopefully your holiday season will be free of injury.
Life Intrigued 