I’m not sure how many Roadrunners we have around the house at the moment, but at least two nesting pairs and two juveniles that were hatched this year. They’re harder to count than cattle, one the run, often in different directions. The one above is taking what appears to be a gopher to a nest in the rocks and Live Oaks above my office window. Earlier this morning, it was a snail. In their beaks, they will beat their quarry senseless, side to side on the ground, until dead. Roadrunners don’t appear to use the same nest twice, and now that I know I have one close by, I’ll keep the camera ready.
drycrikjournal 
I like to have roadrunners around the house here in New Mexico…they keep the rattlesnakes at bay also! Good birds…when they aren’t eating quail eggs. LOL!
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We have a pair of Roadrunners now using the same nest for the fourth time. (It is possible they may have used it even longer – we first discovered them using it last year in April.)
They produced two broods last year (2012) for a total seven fledged. From the first brood this year two were fledged from four eggs. After about three weeks of living in the nest the young moved out. After about a week of hanging around in the vicinity of the nest site, the parents and fledglings all disappeared for about ten days. We think the parents were training the young to hunt and were pushing them out into their own new territories. Then the parents returned, courted, mated, rebuilt the nest, and started the next (second) brood. The second brood today is comprised of six eggs. Three have hatched so far.
The young become so large and heavy that they break down and flatten the nest before fledging. But the parents do a superb job of rebuilding the nest for succeeding use.
I would like to put leg bands on the entire family to keep them identified and sorted so we can follow their distribution into their surrounding territories, pairing, nesting, etc.
However, banding for biological study has become the victim of bureaucratic administration of overzealous environmental legislation and the ensuing adoption of regulations by US F&WS and CA DF&W. It is a federal and state crime to put a band on a wild bird.
jk
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Thanks, John. I knew you had some nesting in a lemon tree and that you could feed some by hand. Maybe our Roadrunners would rather start over than rebuild their nest hoping their incorrigible youngsters may not come back home. The population has really exploded over the past 3 or 4 years here. Hard to drive lower Dry Creek Road without seeing one. Kinda neat!
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I think it is safe to say the RR population has grown dramatically over the past 5-7 years. Yes – explosively (or at least geometrically) in last 3-5 years. Our rattlesnake numbers have been off – maybe the RRs are keeping the pressure on them. Lizards and mouse numbers are also down.
RRs have been seen here killing/eating two small rattlers.. One small rattler recent roadkill laid around a couple of days, then disappeared. We think a RR may have found and ate it.
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John, how big are the eggs?
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A bit smaller than a bantam hen egg, larger than quail. Sent you a picture of the 1st egg of 2013 2nd brood by email ten minutes ago.
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