by CKR
She was back most of this morning. Actually, she’s been back once I haven’t mentioned, always late in the afternoon. But I scared her away by messing around with the camera and trying to take pictures. The deep snow (more than two feet!) probably makes an otherwise good roosting and warming-up spot tolerable, even with an active human not too far away. The temperature supposedly went down to 11 F last night, but it must have gone up to nearly forty this afternoon.
The area she’s chosen for a roost is on the southwest side of the house, with a little roof over it. The low winter sun reflects nicely and warms it up. The walls of the house retain some of the warmth. Here’s the light fixture that she seemed to be eyeing as her roost earlier. With the roof so close and lots of protection from the wind, she should be reasonably comfortable there.
I was more judicious today about taking photos. I want her to become accustomed enough to me to stay. I put out some cracked corn last week, but it appears that roadrunners are obligate carnivores. Other birds, like robins, are carnivores in the summer and switch to fruits and grains in the winter, but the corn hasn’t been touched. So maybe later I’ll put out some sardines, the closest thing I have to mice and lizards. I didn’t want to put them out before, because of the cat, but there’s no way a cat can get to that area now. It’s possible that the cracked corn will attract mice, which will be more to her interest.
She’s left to go hunting. She hop-flies across the snowfield that is my deck and drops down into the yard from this perch. The snow is solid enough now to hold a rabbit and therefore mice; I can see the tracks. When I was shoveling the other day, I flushed a rabbit that could barely make it though head-high powder. So there may be roadrunner-edible things out there.
There’s always a downside. Roadrunners are fairly big birds. This is about an inch across.
Update (at 3:20 already!): I opened a can of sardines and put one on a small plastic plate. I walked to the door with the plate and almost opened it when I saw her sitting on the uppermost plastic table. She was dozing. When she realized the human was nearly upon her, she raised her crest but was sluggish enough that she didn't bolt. I guess I'll eat the sardines.
Update (7:00 am 01/02/07): She is perched on the light fixture, probably spent the night there.