[cobirds] Greater Roadrunner, Adams Co.

Hello COBIRDS:

 

Imagine my complete shock when I arrived at the facility of the Raptor Education Foundation yesterday (roughly I-76 and 136^th Ave), 3/19, at 9:10AM and spied a bird that initially appeared to be an immature Cooper’s hawk, but with a tail longer than a magpie’s!  I hastily ended my cell phone call, and after grabbing the binocs, I determined that the bird was in fact a greater roadrunner.

 

He was sitting on a wing wall which runs along the south side of our office. As I approached him, he flew up into a tree, scattering a few house sparrows. I moved south, up the hill held somewhat in place by said wall, I continued to shoot photos with my cell phone. He then flew towards me, curving to the south, and landed not more than 8 feet away. I froze, he gave me the once-over, and then he walked east towards I-76, stalking in the grass and poking around with his beak.

 

He returned around 11:50 AM and was captured on camera again by one of my docents, Mitch Skinner of Highland’s Ranch, who was training a raptor on our front porch/entrance area.  He also reported to me that the roadrunner seemed relatively unconcerned by his presence, and walked up the hill into the grass.

 

In the almost 9 years that we’ve been at our Brighton facility, we’ve seen nearly every species of Colorado diurnal raptor fly over head, or perch somewhere on the property, but never this “bird of prey” that hunts without talons. Please note that we are on private property and are not open to visitors without an appointment. In response to Susan Rosine’s post from yesterday, does this rare bird count?

 

Perhaps the most ironic part about the timing of my sighting yesterday, was that my abruptly-ended phone call was with my mother, who lives in Tucson, Arizona.  When I exclaimed that I was looking at a roadrunner, her reply was, “Oh, we see those all the time….” 

 

Photos below. I am not a photographer, so apologies for the lack of a Flickr site or similar place to view these.

 

Thank you,

Anne Price, Curator of Raptors

Raptor Education Foundation, Adams Co.