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Thursday, August 24, 2023

The Roadrunner

I used to see quite a few roadrunners in the San Joaquin Valley when I was a kid, then with the growth in the Valley, they got fewer and fewer. I'm not getting all environmentalist on you, it's a simple fact that roadrunners don't do well in Walmart and Home Depot parking lots. 

Anyway, even though I'd seen them all over when I was a youngster, I never knew much about them other than the whole Roadrunner/Wile E Coyote thing. I damned sure didn't know how voracious and vicious the little bastards are.

We'll start you off with a roadrunner killing a rattlesnake, then we'll move on to it beating lizards, snakes and songbirds to death against rocks before eating them.


28 comments:

  1. They're good but I never saw one kill an armadillo

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  2. Why don't cockfighers switch to these bastards?

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  3. Willy Coyote? no, Wylie Coyote, ya dope.

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    1. Put your glasses on and read it again. I said Wile E, not Willy. And as long as you've got your glasses on, read this: https://chuckjones.com/characters/wile-e-coyote/
      So yeah, it's Wile E Coyote, not Wylie Coyote.

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    2. If you're gonna call names, have the balls to not be anon.

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    3. Eh, no biggie, I'm pretty sure it was in jest.
      At least he didn't call me a stupid motherfucker.

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    4. Kind of funny that the guy that wanted to correct you on Wile E.'s spelling didn't actually know the correct spelling.

      Dang, they sure don't make cartoons like they used to. Or talents like Mel Blanc, either.

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    5. Not to take sides but I think Anon is referring to the narrator of the second you tube video where he clearly says Willy E Coyote. It occurs at the 2 min. 38 sec. mark.

      Hiker Mike

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    6. Oh well, hell. I thought he was talking to me. I was wondering where he got Willy from. I guess I really am a stupid motherfucker.

      Anon, I owe you an apology.

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  4. The little bastards are all over here west of Phoenix. They seem to have a hard-on for motorcycles, as they'll wait until you're right on top of them before darting across the road. So far, I've only been able to get one.

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  5. Standing in the carport I heard a noise. A snake came zipping across the yard. Right on the tip of his tail was my cat. Right on his tail was a roadrunner. Don't know who won but it sure woke me up.

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  6. This is all understandable. Falling anvils in a Walmart parking lot would be quite problematic.

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  7. Like the Apache and others, you do what you have to to survive in that country. And libtards want to return to nature ...

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    1. Libtards want YOU to go back to nature. Like here in Colorado where city-based leftists want wolves to be re-introduced in the states, FAR away from them, but in the middle of farmland. Where as a matter of fact wolves already have arrived and settled themselves, killing livestock. But, leftists decried that wolves need to be re-introduced, so dang it, the state is looking for wolves to put at places where they're not wanted. Not downtown Boulder of course......

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  8. We had a few show up in our neighborhood. I’d never seen a real, live one before so I thought that was pretty cool. My next thoughts were to see if I could set up an environment that would encourage them to move in and set up a homestead…….until I started to read up on them. They are a nasty, mean, viscous Hunter. Not an enjoyable evening to watch one of them eviscerating a lizard in your rock garden.

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    1. Man, I've seen them running around with small snakes in their mouths, but I had no idea they were such carnivorous little birds. I thought they ate mostly bugs and shit.

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  9. Living in Arizona , I love the road runners, hate the snakes.

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  10. One of the only birds you can't tell male from female by plumage. They also pair up and mate for life. They both work to build nest and male will set the nest at night to let female hunt.

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  11. Got a family of them living here in my yard. I'm out in the sticks west of Ft. Hood in hill country. The male will let me get within about 5 yards of him now. Guess he's used to me now. The male has a red spot on it's head. I've seen him try and get to a nest of baby blue jays before. But papa blue jay chased him off.

    And ain't seen no snakes in a long long time now.

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  12. Roadrunners are very interesting birds. They are predators and eat bugs, reptiles, rodents, and small birds. And they are easy to befriend. Get some small frozen mice from a pet shop and offer them (thawed) the the RR when they come by. They have habits and are working their territory. Once they know you as a source of food you can convert them to meat scraps. They swallow their prey whole. They will follow you around the yard and beg, they are bold. They might even look in your window and wait by the door.

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  13. Had on out in the yard a couple of years ago but still see a lot of them out in the country. They will tear up snakes and lizards. They will also get up at the top of a small tree and make this weird sounding cooing call. They are a personal favorite bird of mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgYfbhNHt1c

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  14. They are just one more proof that birds descended from dinosaurs, and that the desert hardens the hell out of anything that lives.

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  15. Roadrunners DO fly. I don't know how well, but good enough to crack the windshield of a Silverado doing 70 down in Gonzalas, Tx.

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  16. We got 'shot down' at NTC at Ft Irwin. Grabbed the thermarest and the woobie and hit the sand. When we got up, there was a roadrunner like 5ft from us, giving us the eye. I was floored, being from the east coast I thought the roadrunner was some sort of myth and there it was, checking us out. I swear it said beep beep as it left.

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  17. Damn, sounds like Wile E. was lucky to survive with just an anvil falling on his head....I always got a kick out of that dust ring at the bottom of the cliff after a fall....

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  18. great post Can't wait to show the grandkids

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  19. Absolutely rapacious, snatched h-bird at a feeder:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVbjDW-tqQ

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