This Way To My Blog

This Way To My Blog

Friday, April 30, 2010

The Trusty Chapparall Bird


This is all we saw at the ranch this morning (borrowed picture) other then the cows and turtles. Roadrunners are still plentiful. Reminds me that my uncle kept one as a pet in the 50's. He drove a butane or propane truck to deliver gas to his customers with his pet roadrunner in tow. I have a picture of him with the roadrunner on his shoulder and an article in my scrap book that was printed in a San Antonio paper. I didn't even have to call the turtles. When we drove onto the tank dam they started swimming toward us I just couldn't be selfish and eat first. Here I was balancing my taco in one hand and a margaine tub of cat food in the other. Sometime I would share a piece of taco or egg, but I didn't try thier cat food. We encountered a herd of mesquitoes while riding around. Thank goodness I carry Off in the truck for just such occasions. I watched John rob a wheel off an old piece of machinery to use on a trailer he hopes to fix up. I didn't think he would ever be able to seperate it from that old rusty hunk of junk that has been sitting in a cactus plant forever. He did though and it didn't take too long. I ask John if he didn't want to drive to the east property to see if we could see Betsy. He said well then we aren't going on a drive this afternoon. We didn't see her but she could have been resting in the tall grass and mesquite. We stopped to trim some overhanging branches in the little lane. As we passed the farm house I noticed they had added a new dog house for one of thier little dogs. They had taken one of those large plastic boxes you can get at Wal*Mart to store things in and turned it on it's side. They fluffed it up with bedding and wah-la, instant bed.

9 comments:

Toon said...

Do they make a weird noise? They look like they'd make a weird noise.

Ally Lifewithally said...

I love joining you on your outings ~ and would love to know how your uncle made a pet of a Roadrunner ~ Ally x

Helen said...

That roadrunner is beautiful. At least the renters provides beds of some sort to their animals.Have a good weekend Paula. Helen

Marty said...

Thanks! I think that's the first time I've seen a photo of a real Road Runner. Does it make a "beep, beep" kind of sound while watching an anvil fall on a coyote's head?
Best,
Marty

Anonymous said...

I've never seen a real roadrunner. I've seen it only in cartoons. Are they really noisy?

Take care.

jack69 said...

Thanks for posting the picture. We did see one in Big Bend, but it was gone so fast, I didn't get a good look.
So that is the real name of the road runner. I just looked it up and it is the state bird for New Mexico. I always learn from the Country Tales.
Take care,
Hugs from Sherry & Jack

Jimmy's Journal said...

I was in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas a few years back and we drove to Phoenix to see the Nascar Phoenix 500. On the way there, we went through a small a town and I saw what I assumed to be a rooster. Upon looking closer, I realized it wsa a Roadrunner.

It really thrilled me and we followed it until it ran into a road tunnel. When we followed it, we crashed the van, Evidently, he thought Wile E. Coyote was with us.....

Ok, we didn't crash the van but I was thrilled to see it. First one I had ever seen.

Jimmy

Sheila Y said...

I was hoping you didn't get confused feeding the turtles and eat from the wrong hand... :)
Have a great weekend, Sheila

Kay said...

I've actually seen several here where I live in SoCal.

Kay