Road Runners

We spent some time recently at our vacation home.  It's at the other end of the valley and is a totally different atmosphere from the pine filled alpine setting we normally live in.  At Baldwin Lake it's high desert and even the fauna changes.  We have rattlers there and the birds are different too.

A Road Runner on grass - not its normal surface

While I was there one day sitting on the deck I saw a Road Runner cross in front of me.  I've never seen one before up here, although they are often around in the lower desert locations.  They are funny looking.  About 2 1/2 feet from beak to tail end they are somewhat scruffy.  They don't fly much as they're not very good at it, but they can run with a top speed clocked at about 26 m.p.h.  The bird I watched ran one way and then another; I waited but there was no Wile E. Coyote behind him!