The Roadrunner

The Roadrunner

I was working at the ‘point’ position at the back gate to the installation my company guards in the desert Southwestern United States.  This is a lonely position, on the overnight shift anyway, and, as the sun comes up in the mornings, I enjoy watching the wildlife around this secluded post.  This morning I was watching a roadrunner as it stalked among the mesquite and creosote bush along the roadway nearby.  I figured it was hunting its breakfast. 

The roadrunner is not really a large bird, though with its long legs and neck it stands about a foot tall and is maybe 18 to 20 inches long from beak to end of its tail feathers, and if this bird weighs as much as two pounds I’d be greatly surprised.  It feed mostly on lizards and snakes, in contrast to the seed-eating cartoon character that the coyote can never catch.

The roadrunner is not really classified as a ‘flightless’ bird, though, until I saw this one fly from the west side of the road to the east side, I had not seen one fly before, nor do I know anyone else who has actually seen this.  Another thing that amazed me was seeing  this bird climb up into a small mesquite tree; not fly or jump up into it, but actually climb up the slightly leaning trunk into the branches, occasionally using its wings almost like hands to pull itself through the branches.  I assumed it was searching for a lizard to have for its breakfast.

A few minutes later, the bird jumped down to the ground and began to attack a medium sized bull snake of about three feet in length.  Once the snake was killed, I watched, still amazed, as the roadrunner began to swallow the snake whole!  Once this was accomplished, it was quite humorous to watch the engorged bird waddle along with such a distended stomach!  A similarity that comes to mind, if you, too, can imagine it, would be a very skinny, ‘shapeless’, lady at, or even beyond, her ninth month of pregnancy!  In fact, a couple minutes later, a coworker came out to where I was, saw the bird without seeing what had taken place just before, and declared:  “Hey, look at that pregnant roadrunner!”

I couldn’t help laughing at this ‘city-boy’s’ ignorance, and informed him:  “Roadrunners lay eggs, like most all birds; it’s not pregnant, it just swallowed a three-foot snake!”