♪♫♬ I gave my love a lizard / that had some bones ♪♫♬
May 24, 2019 12:50 PM   Subscribe

 
OMG. Where is this? I want to move to a place where road runners hang out on my deck.
posted by notsnot at 12:56 PM on May 24, 2019 [5 favorites]


My high school's sports teams were named the Kelly Road Roadrunners, but we mostly just had the Looney Tunes character in mind. I am not entirely certain I have ever seen a photo of a real roadrunner before.

What a good bird. 12/10, would rate again.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:04 PM on May 24, 2019 [7 favorites]


This explains why Wile E. never did catch that Roadrunner. This one knows to knock on the window, it's never going to get confused by a realistic painting of a tunnel on a rock.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:05 PM on May 24, 2019 [10 favorites]


Roadrunners are awesome and one of the things I miss most about living in Albuquerque. They're weird and adorable in that "tiny curious dinosaur with a very active crest" way.
posted by wanderingmind at 1:10 PM on May 24, 2019 [14 favorites]


Also, ThreadReader version.
posted by wanderingmind at 1:11 PM on May 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


If I could get Twitter to show me only threads like this, and like museum wars, and #review for science, and spiders with lasers, etc. I could die happy.
posted by lemonade at 1:21 PM on May 24, 2019 [7 favorites]


I feel like an idiot, but I never knew that road runners were real animals! I thought it was some cartoon invention meep meep
posted by sallybrown at 1:33 PM on May 24, 2019 [8 favorites]


I love this. Also, if my husband doesn't bring home at least a cricket tonight, he's getting the cold shoulder.
posted by taz at 1:35 PM on May 24, 2019 [29 favorites]


Fabulous title, Atom Eyes!
posted by jamjam at 1:48 PM on May 24, 2019 [10 favorites]


I mean, it's cute and all, but it's just the bird is seeing it's reflection in the mirror. People think everything is about them in this world. It's really something.
(am biologist, see this kind of behavior all the time in mirrors and glass from certain angles)
posted by Patapsco Mike at 1:53 PM on May 24, 2019 [5 favorites]


On whether is about the reflection, she tweeted "But also he follows me from room to room, and will come to the edge of the porch (not near a window) if I’m sitting outside reading, so I think he loves his reflection AND is generally fond of me."
posted by readinghippo at 2:15 PM on May 24, 2019 [18 favorites]


Road runners are one of the reasons it is worthwhile to visit Albuquerque, though this is especially interesting. I am glad that good MFers post pointers to this sort of thing, so I don't miss the 0.00001% of good content on Tweeter.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 2:20 PM on May 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


I mean, it's cute and all, but it's just the bird is seeing it's reflection in the mirror.

Ironically, the same comment could probably refer to men being creeps to her in that thread.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:38 PM on May 24, 2019 [31 favorites]


I grew up in Roadrunner territory and saw them all the time, they are a bit like chickens - unremarkable ground feeders that only fly occasionally. Then, just a few years ago, in spring mating season, I saw one at the top of a smallish tree, singing vigorously. Both behaviors I'd never witnessed before. I felt I'd neglected them. I should have paid more attention to them. They are Cuckoos, one of a group of only 6 species in North America.
posted by Bee'sWing at 3:47 PM on May 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


DELIGHTFUL. I have added roadrunners to my list of birds I would like to befriend, along with an entire murder of crows and several owls.
posted by schadenfrau at 4:06 PM on May 24, 2019 [11 favorites]


I'm not into the birbs, but was visiting in Albuquerque a couple years ago and saw a roadrunner on my daughter's garden wall. Sort of like a drab and scrawny pheasant, but still such a neat thing to actually see one.

meep meep
*dust cloud*
posted by BlueHorse at 4:28 PM on May 24, 2019


OMG. Where is this? I want to move to a place where road runners hang out on my deck.

The Sonora Desert.

Please keep in mind that any place that includes road runners may include one or all of the following:

Tarantula Hawk Wasp (Largest wasp in the Western world? Reportedly one of the most painful stings of any insect anywhere. Giant evil black and red bastards. Larger and noisier than a hummingbird!)

Scorpions (Multiple kinds, some quite dangerous like the tiny, understated Bark Scorpion! Spicy!)

Rattlesnakes (Multiple kinds, including Diamondbacks!)

Tarantulas (Not usually dangerous but, oh, my goodness!)

Black Widows (Lots and lots!)

Vinergaroons, sunspiders and whip scorpions. (Like scorpions, but even freakier!)

Coyotes

Javelina

Cougars

Bobcats

Lynx

Oh, and sometimes? Sometimes wild domesticated but abandoned and feral dog packs!

Even the jackrabbits are big, tough, oversized and scrawny weirdos. They are not cute, fluffy bunnies.

Not to mention pretty much all plants being very pokey and unfriendly, extreme high and low temps, monsoons, haboobs (sandstorms!) and many more exciting, dynamic desert living flora, fauna and weather phenomena.

Like, oh, 120 degree heat in 80-100% humidity due to a monsoon. Hot rain is... interesting.

So is always checking your shoes for scorpions or other critters, including baby rattlers. Or trying to figure out how to deal with a rattlesnake on your porch, especially a surprise one.

Eventually you just get a knack for picking up actual living and very dangerous snakes and may even have a favorite "snake stick", perhaps a manzanita branch with a nice fork or hook on the end for holding down the bitey end of the snake so you can casually grab the tail and drag or fling it back into the bushes.

And, well, if you are an old school native New Mexican or West Texan you probably just eat the thing and maybe save the skin. Because, really, a big fat rattlesnake is about as good as a random free range chicken showing up for lunch, except one end is a bit more bitey and it's a lot easier to skin.

It sure is pretty out there, but I want to emphasize - if only for comedic effect - that many people's honest and understandable reaction to actually living in full strength southwestern deserts is roughly, in order "OMG IT IS SO HOT IT SHOULDN'T ALLOWED TO BE THIS HOT WAIT HOLD UP WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?"

I will readily confess I have said all of those things and more. I was trying to say "What the fuck is that!?" when I first met a tarantula hawk but it just came out as high pitched screaming.
posted by loquacious at 4:37 PM on May 24, 2019 [57 favorites]


This totally needs a FeelGoodFilter tag! What a wonderful thing to read, thanks so much for posting!
posted by hippybear at 7:19 PM on May 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


That is adorable. RRs are way cool.
posted by davidmsc at 9:56 PM on May 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


Vinergaroons, sunspiders and whip scorpions

Oh my!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:13 PM on May 24, 2019 [7 favorites]


The sheer rangy spikiness of that Roadrunner gave it an electricity I did not expect!

I'd love to have a nesting pair hanging around my house, but a lonely unmated one would feel pretty sad.
posted by jamjam at 10:38 PM on May 24, 2019


I’ve got a picture like this from ABQ, even the same looking deck (sans lizard)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:24 AM on May 25, 2019


I spent some time road tripping through this part of the world and I'm gonna confirm loquacious. IT IS SO HOT. You know when you open the oven and that hot blast comes out at you? That's what it's like every time you open the door. It's incredibly hot and everything is spikes and wants to kill you. I'm really glad knowing this amazing ecosystem exists and that I can stay far, c far away from it. I'm going to limit my wildlife encounters to the many many dumb panicky fledgeling robins currently flapping around my house wondering if me or my chickens are their momma.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:23 AM on May 25, 2019


This made me smile! I love roadrunners so much and am lucky to see them (often in pairs!) not infrequently. They don't seem to be the most skittish of birds, so I'm not surprised this one is on the friendlier side.

And as a Sonoran desert resident, I'm also confirming loquacious's comment. Tarantula hawk wasps are terrifying. I love the creatures (and the flora) here, try to treat everyone and everything respectfully, but those tarantula hawk wasps!

(Adding to the list of creatures here: the venomous but very lovely gila monsters. They live nearly almost all of their lives underground, so I'm always amazed when I see any. But they're these chubby, beautiful orange-and-black lizards, moseying along in their slow, steady way. They're not much of a threat to humans because they're sooo slow, but due to pop culture--and their name--they have add their outsized reputation to desert danger.)
posted by mixedmetaphors at 12:17 PM on May 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


I grew up in Roadrunner territory and saw them all the time, they are a bit like chickens - unremarkable ground feeders that only fly occasionally. Then, just a few years ago [...]

Yeah, just like if chickens were speedrunners that kill rattlesnakes by whip-pounding them to death.

And to people who say this guy is just responding to his own reflection instead of doing something more complicated, does that mean with his food display he's seeking gay marriage? Just wondering.
posted by cattypist at 3:09 PM on May 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


I wonder if it's purely visual, or pheromones are involved (either originating from the poster, or from a product that she uses)?

If it's just a reflection (if roadrunners exhibit sexual dimorphism), what does this say to them not responding to the "gifts" in the reflection?

... reflection

Oh! That's what the brain damaged/ maladapted robin (Turdus migratorius, seriously) outside of my balcony must be doing. It keeps keeps flying up to one 1st/2nd story ledge-less windows on the building across the away, smacks into the window, hovers until it gets too tired, and retreats to a nearby branch. Rests, and. keeps. repeatedly. doing. doing. doing. it.
posted by porpoise at 11:21 PM on May 25, 2019


Love this! My kiddo read Kakapo Rescue and there was some amorous one that wouldn’t let the researchers easily get to the loo. And in other cartoon realism experiences, not only do roadrunners have the meep-meeps, but pileated woodpeckers sound a touch like Woody, enough so I’m pretty sure the cartoon matches up with someone enduring the call and the jackhammer sounds.
posted by childofTethys at 7:09 AM on May 27, 2019


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