Roadrunner In A Tree

[ness]

Did you have your Acme anvil and fall off a cliff trying to catch it?

LOL

[denjac]

To clarify, by "can't believe you posted this" I meant it's hard to believe someone else saw the same thing we did. Nothing wrong with the post, of course.

James, that is weird for us both to see that. The biology professor at SMU that verified it for me had me email the pics to him He said they will hop up on low branches, but he has never seen one that high up before. Might be an evelution thing going on, adapting to the terrain they have chose to live in. According to him it was a rare sighting, not the roadrunner, but the tree thing.

[skeeter]

Eight or ten years ago we were lucky enough to observe a nesting pair of Roadrunners (largest North American cuckoo) across from Pt. 20 as they were searching for food along the shore and then flying ( which they do quite well ) back to their well hidden nest slightly inland. They were making a lot of noise with very strange sounding calls back and forth between parents and the hungry fledglings in the nest. More of a squawking noise than anything.

We, in SW MO, are at the extreme NE corner of their range and their numbers here are unfortunately on the decline due to habitat loss, not because of human activity for once, but because of the intrusion of the Eastern Red Cedar tree which is shading out the glades which are their preferred hunting area. Once the native glades are gone the fauna like lizards that need that open, Sunny space disappear too. Everywhere you look the cedar is taking over.

[gitnby]

I'm glad someone else saw one! I thought I was goin crazy a few weeks ago when I saw what looked like a roadrunner going across our path to the lake.

Although I haven't seen any this year, the pileated woodpecker is another interesting bird.

These things are huge! As big as or maybe bigger than a crow, and when they start diggin for ants on a tree, it sounds like a jackhammer!

When you see one, you automatically think of Woody Woodpecker. Looks just like him.

[LouDog]

Like the previous post said they will hop from branch to branch up a cedar until they reach a height from which they can glide across the glade. I get to see this every now and again on the bluff/glade area at Buttermilk. They really don't fly, just glide. Thanks for the photo....

[SKMO]

I live around Shell Knob and I can tell you roadrunners are pretty common. I have had them on my back deck numerous times looking at their reflection in the sliding glass door. They will also stand in front of a parked vehicle and admire themselves in a chrome bumper for hours on end.

They are odd critters, almost tame. I have seen them jump into low bushes numerous times, and had one follow me on the shoreline chattering for an hour a few years ago as I fished up around Holiday Island. A couple years ago we had one in the backyard that I ran out to see, and when I got out there he was gone, or so I thought. I looked up and he was about 3' above my head looking down at me from the limb of a dogwood tree.

I can assure you there are a lot of them along the AR border in the Lampe - Carr Lane - Golden - Eagle Rock area. I am pretty sure they are common as far east as West Plains.

Like Skeeter said they really like open glades, but adapt well to bare pasture that has been grazed into the dirt (overgrazed). I have seen 2 at a time three times around Golden MO in the last year. If you want to see one drive the hwy between Golden and Grandview AR. (MO H that turns into AR 143).

They are now found fairly regularly as far north as Lake Ozarks and west central MO area.

I can remember in the early 80's when armadillos were an unusual sighting.

Cool birds.

[Gone Fishing]

They are also very territorial. If you see one somewhere it is very common to see them there from now on.

[Champ188]

Hey Denny, maybe my tree-sitting Beaver Lake roadrunner got smart and moved to Table Rock. I used to fish Beaver pretty often but finally moved my efforts north.

[denjac]

Hey Denny, maybe my tree-sitting Beaver Lake roadrunner got smart and moved to Table Rock. I used to fish Beaver pretty often but finally moved my efforts north.

That was funny!