Peek-a-Boo ©

The Lesser Goldfinch is hiding in the ocotillo. 

Ocotillo is a gray, thorny desert shrub/tree--small green leaves appear when there is moisture but the leaves drop off and the plant looks dead when it is dry.  In the spring the ocotillo has bright red tubular flower blooms at the tip of the stems.  The Lesser Goldfinch is a year round resident.  They feed on seeds, grains and budding treetops--they mix with other seed-eating songbirds, especially at bird feeders!

(Copyright 2013)

Beep, Beep ©

The Roadrunner is a handsome bird but he is nothing like the lovable Warner Bros. cartoon character!

  

In the cartoon, could you imagine the roadrunner using its wings like a matador's cape, snapping up a coiled rattlesnake by the tail, cracking it like a whip and repeatedly slamming its head agaist the ground until dead.  The roadrunner swallows its prey whole but often is unable to swallow the entire length of the snake at one time. That doesn't stop the roadrunner from its normal routine:  it continues on with the snake dangling from its mouth..  

Maybe the roadrunner is more like a Jurassic Park charactor, a Bambiraptor, a bird-like dinosaur, light in weight, with strong hind legs which suggest he may have been a fast runner.

The roadrunner is capable only of weak flight, and spends most of its time on the ground, moving at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.  It walks around rapidly, running down its prey.  The roadrunner feeds on insects, fruit and seeds along with small reptiles, small rodents, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, small birds and their eggs and, yes, even roadkill. 

(Copyright 2013)