Greetings All:
While exploring the area below Lake Six this morning I stumbled across one
of the oddest assemblages of critters I have seen in some time.
It started with a Greater Roadrunner, carrying a rather large snake,
scrambling to breast the escarpment of the old quarry. Zooming in with
binoculars, I was able to identify the snake as a Gopher Snake (the second
Gopher Snake I have seen this December) and I discovered why the roadrunner
was scrambling so hard: a Cooper's Hawk was dogging it. As the three
critters crested the 'cliff' face they drew the attention of an American
Kestrel who continued dive-bombing the whole assemblage several times after
I had lost the roadrunner/snake/accipiter combo to foliage. Eventually the
kestrel resumed his perch on a power line, the accipiter - snakeless - took
a perch in a saltcedar thicket, and the roadrunner, I am presuming, cowered
in some cover while enjoying a late, in both senses of the word, snake.
The sad thing, from the perspective of my Canyan Lakes game, is that the
show was so staggering I neglected to get my camera up and photograph the
only Greater Roadrunner I have seen along the lakes this year - driving my
percentage back down:)
Anthony 'Fat Tony' Hewetson; Lubbock
