I found an egg on the ground. It looked like a smaller long and skinny version of my chicken eggs. It was perfectly in between the size of a wren egg and a chicken egg. It was a middle sized egg. I thought, what bird laid this egg? After some quick research i realized it was a road runner egg. The articles said they laid eggs 3 to 4 feet off the ground in brush or bushes or sometimes low hanging trees. It was directly in front of a large stringy overgrown wild plant that the dogs were always poking their noses into. They seemed very interested in whatever was in there but i assumed they were searching for possum or armadillo. I looked everywhere else that was 3 feet off the ground in the area but could find no nest. I suspect they may have one in that plant but its too overgrown to really check.
The egg was cracked on the side sitting on the ground and the ants were hauling off the goop that had oozed out of it. Seeing as this was a loss for the parental road runners and not salvageable i decided to open it to see if it was fertilized or not. It was either unfertilized or just too young to tell because when i opened it it was mostly dry. The majority of the goo had oozed out and been carried off by the ants. All that was left was something that looked like barely cooked egg whites but tinged slightly yellow as if the yolk and egg whites had mixed. And that is the story of how i discovered what a road runner egg looks like. They’re such quick and timid creatures you can actually live near them for years and never learn anything new about their habits or lifestyles. They’re not people friendly, but then neither am i. How can i blame them?
My grandfather would feed roadrunners little balls of hamburger.
The sellers of the property used to feed a big one raisins. They named him “Big Tex”. He kept coming around a few more days but when he didnt see the couple he decided i was a stranger without raisins and disappeared.