Category Archives: Ranch Journal

Begging your indulgence for yet another photograph of the Roadrunners, an adult and juvenile, hanging around the cactus nest where one fledging remained yesterday afternoon as I came in the driveway.

We started in the dark to gather and preg-check our third-calf cows, make the sort of who stays where and who goes to town, keeping in mind our scarce stockwater resources. We shipped one bunch of calves Tuesday that sold well yesterday—we’ve been busy. Too busy to sit by the nest for photographs, so whatever shows up here is only by chance, nothing scientific about it.

We know the babies fledge and grow rapidly, and are as mobile as the adults when they leave the nest. Having an adult and juvenile together in a photo, it’s obvious the juvenile is smaller with a shorter tail. Notice also the differences in the eye of each. In a previous post, I assumed four babies in the nest, but revisiting the photo after comments, one of the eyes is that of an adult judging by its tail and the eye of this adult—so only three.

Yesterday evening one of our crow pair, who have been harassing and raiding the bird nests in the yard for several weeks, was at the cactus patch where the one fledgling remained. As the crow left with apparently nothing, an adult and juvenile went to the nest as if to rescue and encourage the last one to leave.

If there’s nothing in the nest this morning, I’ll have to count young beaks to see if it survived, an impossible task unless the three start running together.