Roadrunner Redux

So what do you think? I think this is the female roadrunner – no bright blue and red patches on her face like Lazarus sports. She was running like a champ (hence the lousy portrait of her), so I’m going to assume that this little lady managed to heal from her foot wound, and is as right as rain now.

A few times over the last couple of weeks, we have seen a roadrunner inspecting the roadrunner nest inside the big, thorny hedge where the two orphaned eggs still reside, and where the two chicks were raised to maturity (we think). Today BOTH Lazarus and the female (need a name for her – got one?) were here. Lazarus popped right into the nest area and stomped around a bit, but the female hopped around on the deck in front of the hedge instead of entering from the side as was customary previously. Soon they both sprinted off across the yard and into the back forty without making any noise at all – no discussion between them, it seems.

We wonder if they are intimidated by the presence of the eggs – we don’t know who laid them. There are a bazillion spiny daggers in the hedge, so I am not keen on trying to remove those two eggs. They have nice big beaks; they can just spear ’em and spitooey ’em on their own if they want to reuse the nest.

Hey, the rent is cheap, so they can provide a little sweat equity if they want to recycle the nest.