Roadrunner Seeks Wife: Has Three Houses

On my walk today, I snapped this pic of my favorite little birdhouse, which I found at a craft show in Missouri. I put it up in early summer 2008 and several little birds were checking it out, but then vanished.



This was soon explained when I noticed the male roadrunner was constructing a huge nest in the tree above where I had hung the little birdhouse. No (smart) little bird builds a house just below a fast, wily predator...



Ricky the roadrunner spent time sitting on this next during the summer, but no lady-friend ever appeared. Ricky also built nests (or were they hunting blinds?) in the big pine out back AND the top utility shelf in the garage (via the doggie door) incorporating the business end of the electric chainsaw on that shelf into the twigs of the nest! So it seems he's still single. But hopeful.

Mid-June Garden Goings On

First let me say: how the heck did it get to be mid-June already! My grandmother always said time sped up "when you get older." I thought she meant 80's -- not 40's! The speeding up of time though, is making me choose what I spend my time on much more carefully than ever... Gardening ALWAYS passes the where-to-spend-this-speeding-time test! There's a lot of good garden eating going on around here as seen in the pic above. I love beets. Now that I figured out how to use a juicer I really wish I'd planted more - they are delicious with carrot and apples.



While the amazing amount of rain has been disastrous for the yellow squash, the kale is still going strong. I haven't been quite bold enough to juice kale, but I hear you can..



Here's Larrapin's golf-ball sized watermelon. It's a variety called "Blacktail Mountain" is is supposed to be very early. I'll say! Hope it does better in the damp than the squash have -- which went from lovely to covered-in-mildew literally overnight. Eeek. I'm planning to replant rather than try to save it I think (and hope for more sun, less dampness.)



The zuchinni are currently surviving....



Aren't borage blooms amazing. I plant them to keep the tomatoes company and the bees love the blooms too.



And I've got stuff to plant that I don't have space for! Sigh. Garden is never big enough. :-)



Bush beans going strong. The little fence is enough to keep the bunnies at bay during that irresistable 2-6inche stage, which these have gotten past. If we get some good sunshine, we'll have beans before we know it.



The dill has managed to attract a celebration of swallowtail caterpillars. It's nice to be able to walk by and say words of encouragement and praise to a future butterfly.



So I was standing back admiring the garden, thinking what a beautiful place I have the privilege to learn from, when who should fly down from her nest in that tree at the end of the garden path but...



One of the roadrunners. This may be the female and maybe that nest is more serious than the usual piles of sticks in trees (and in the garage) that we call their "hunting blinds." She stood all puffed out in the sun, drying out for a moment in between rain showers.

Thanks for taking a mid-June walk around Larrapin!

Roadrunner Courts our Dachshunds...

If you've visited Larrapin Garden's blog, you've probably met Randy, Ricky and Rhonda, the three road runners that have visited our land at different times. Randy (a big male) hasn't been seen in a long time. Rhonda is kind of shy. Ricky, on the other hand, is kind of like an odd pet that lives in the yard and has a lizard/snake fetish.

We've told folks that Ricky has a huge crush on our weiner dogs, and regularly brings them courtship offering -- in various stages of deathly disarray -- of lizards or small snakes or large bugs. Or if pickings are slim, Ricky will settle for sticks, chunks of grass or cherry blossoms. Anyway, this is hard to believe till you see it. Since Ricky usually courts through the glass sliding doors, at first we thought he might just be seeing his reflection and be unaware of the two weenie dogs slathering on the other side. (Okay, only Buster the part jack-russell slathers, Blue is far to lazy to slather...)

But this video proves Ricky the Roadrunner has it bad for the dogs because he's flirting through a fence and can see them plainly. (And is perfectly aware they can't get to him...I know the inspiration for the roadrunner/coyote cartoon watching this bird!) So here it goes:

(NOTE: turn your volume way DOWN to eliminate the mowing going on during this video and the incessant yapping...I don't know enough about doing video to decrease it... It's 2 minutes long.)

Lovelorn Roadrunner...

Arkansas is the first place I've ever lived with Roadrunners and I have to say I never guessed they'd be an everyday presence around the house. Last year "Randy," a fairly large male, made regular appearances, with gifts of dead lizards or in a pinch, a stand-in leaf, in his beak. He'd dance in front of the picture windows for the dachshund. We thought he was just dancing for his reflection.

This picture seems to prove otherwise. This is "Ricky" who we guess to be Randy's offspring. We are not sure he's too bright since he's courting two male dachshunds up close and personal now. After this food offering ritual, Ricky proceed to jump the fence, dash across the pen (weiners in hot pursuit) then fly out of the pen -- kind of playing "chicken" with the weiner brothers it seemed. He did this several times and the dogs nearly lost their minds. Of course they couldn't catch him.

Worse yet, Ricky has courted our big dog without a fence between them. More pics of that later. Here's hoping Spring brings Ricky a more suitable bride!