Roadie's nest

While at the computer the other day, I watched Roadie (we consider her "ours" because she lives here year around and roosts in the horse barn) in a very submissive posture leading another road runner towards the place where she nested last year. The other road runner had a twig in his beak. Was she going to use the nest again?

Road runners are apparently rather secretive about their nest, but this one chose a volunteer butterfly bush, flanked on either side by honey suckle, that hides our propane tank. It is a tangle alright, but not so private. Last year we warned the guy filling the tank that there was a nest two feet from the fill hole, he was fine with that "as long as it isn't snakes", and Roadie stayed on the nest during the fill time.

I also water the honeysuckle weekly, that is when I saw that she was on the nest, perfectly camouflaged with her streaked plumage in that mess of branches.

This morning she was on the garden fence next to the nest so I asked Dan, who is a bit taller than I am, to peek into the nest. Voila! Three eggs again!

Meanwhile she was doing her mournful coo-coo-coo while sunning herself, perhaps to admonish her mate (lifelong, I read) to bring more nesting material. Dan saw her, or the mate, stealing some nesting material from a cactus wren nest a bit later. The cactus wren decided that the nest box on the porch was the place to raise her family. Also she is sitting on eggs. It is Spring, I say.