Feed me, feed me, PLEASE

The three young roadrunners are still around, making a pest of themselves to their parents. But they are at least trying to catch their own food; we watched one of them in pursuit of a butterfly, doing laps around a tree. This young one came up to the patio door, saw its reflection and put on the "I am but a young and hungry bird, please feed me" act. Mom and Dad still do provide some sustenance, but encourage independence.

Young quail are at risk, as are the young ground squirrels, and even very young cottontails. But not all goes the roadrunner's way. An adult gamble quail father will chase an adult roadrunner and pull feathers to protect his brood. Dan saw the cactus wren bombard a roadrunner who had no place to hide and just took the hits. And I saw a round tail ground squirrel run off two young roadrunners who apparently got too close to his den.

On separate occasions we have watched an adult roadrunner with a small bunny in his beak, screaming for dear life, and with mom in hot pursuit. I had to draw the line here, as did Dan, and interfered. In Dan's case the roadrunner dropped the bunny, who ran into an abandoned badger hole. I took the other bunny back to his den in a kitchen towel.

Still, there are no sightings of lizards at our place, and I am sure that some young animals fall to that mighty roadrunner beak. We all have to eat.