Either It's Roadrunner Mating Season or I Have A Brain Tumor

A couple of days ago, I took Justin & Will to the park. We call it "snake tunnel park" because it has a long walking trail that leads to some tunnels and they have a big sign at the beginning of the trail that warns of snakes. We have NEVER seen a snake.. thank GOD. On this particular visit though, I saw something I have only seen one other time in my life... a geococcyx californianus or chaparral otherwise known as a roadrunner. (thanks google). He was there...then he was gone before I could point it out to the kids. Fast forward a few hours. Our house backs up to a greenbelt area and we have a wrought iron fence in the back. I went out on our deck to water the one plant I am really, really trying to keep alive (I'm horrible with plants).Focus Mendi. So I glanced and saw ANOTHER roadrunner behind our fence! Of course he also took off too fast for the kids to see him. So... I know I'm a little paranoid from watching too much Grey's Anatomy... and Izzy's brain tumor; seeing things story line. So I figured it would be a lot less hassle to google roadrunners & find out if it is their mating season than to go get an MRI on my brain. Besides, I'm a little claustrophobic.

So here is what I found out. Our animal science lesson for today:

Roadrunner's carnivorous habits offer it a large supply of very moist food. It reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion. Yuck. A nasal gland eliminates excess salt, instead of using the urinary tract like most birds. Double Yuck. Its extreme quickness allows it to snatch a humming bird or dragonfly from midair.They can run up to 17 miles per hour- that's why the 2 I saw got away so fast. Here is the great part or maybe not so great part. THEY EAT RATTLESNAKES! So there really are snakes at Snake Tunnel Park... and in my backyard? At least they are getting eaten. Right?

Oh yeah... and one more thing. It IS their mating season! Collective sigh of relief.

Boyd & I got to talking about my sightings & realized that our kids have never seen Roadrunner & Coyote cartoons. They don't know about the mee-meep or acme dynamite sticks. They've never seen Coyote set boobie traps for Roadrunner and have them backfire on him over and over again every single time. So here is a reminder of your (or mine at least) childhood. A real cartoon, not made on a computer & pretty funny. This one has a SURPRISE ending...

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that we have coyotes behind our fence too. We hear them howling all the time. Go Roadrunner Go! I hope my new friend never gets caught!