WATCH THE BIRDIES
My Lover Kelly and I have been camping in the desert off by ourselves under a huge tamerisk tree with no one else around for a half mile. During our stay here we noticed a family of 3 road runners which look like a mated pair with one of their chicks from last year hanging around our camp. When we told one of the old desert rats this he told us that if we bought some hamburger and if we were patient enough then the road runners would be bold enough to eat it out of our hand. We bought a pound, went back to camp and waited for the road runners to show up. They did.
At first they wouldn't come closer than 6 feet from us so we would toss them the meat which they would immediately eat. After only a week they would come right up to us and wait for us to drop the meat in front of us before they would take. After just another week we had the birds eating right out of our hands, something we really enjoyed doing. After awhile the birds if they didn't see us would peck on our van's side door telling us it was feeding time. Every now and then they would peck at the rear door in which case Kelly would say, “Go to the side door if you want some food.” and they would.
One day just after we finished feeding the road runners one of them was sunning its self with its wings stretched out when all of a sudden a Coopers hawk swooped down on it. The road runner immediately turned over and a vicious life or death fight ensued with the hawk on top and the road runner on the bottom. Then almost as suddenly as it began it was over with the hawk flying away with empty talons. The road runner picked itself up and split. Kelly and I were mightily impressed that a road runner could defeat a large hawk especially in a surprise attack. Man, them is some tough birds.
As we were feeding the road runners we noticed two smaller gray and black birds watching us and if the road runners missed a piece of meat they would swoop in and grab it flying away before the road runners could get at them. We thought we might try hand feeding them too so while hand feeding the road runners we would also, toss the smaller birds a piece of meat which they would immediately fly in and take up.
One day when the road runner didn't show up Kelly said she was going to try and hand feed the smaller birds so she put a ball of hamburger in the palm of her hand and stretched it out. At first the birds were hesitant but finally on of them swooped in and while still in flight snatched the meat right out of her hand. It wasn't long before either of us could stand with a hand outstretched with a piece of meat it it and the birds would fly in, perch on one of our fingers then eat the meat at it's leisure. Since there were 2 of them we'd have to do it twice because they would never feed at the same time but would only take turns.
Since we camped there all season we were feeding both the road runners and the as we found out later, the shrikes, on almost a daily basis. One day we got a very pleasant surprise. The pair of shrikes brought two fledglings with them, their babies, then proceed to show the babies how to get the giant monsters to give them food. Soon we were feeding 3 road runners and 4 shrikes. Since we bought only the cheapest hamburger it didn't cost us too much and anyway, the pleasure we got from hand feeding the wild birds far out weighted the price.