A Hill Country Boxing Match

The couple who sold me this property years ago used to feed raisins to a large road runner that they called “Big Tex”. Over the years i’ve spotted a roadrunner here or there and even found a broken road runner egg next to one that was unfertilized and didnt hatch. It seems the inhabitant of the broken one probably was fertilized and broke out of its shell as there were what appeared to resemble veins stuck to the inside of the shell. However, for the most part, the birds seemed to keep to themselves, preferring to skirt along the edge of the tall grasses in the front field and dip in and out of them when the dogs barked or i started the car. They were wild. I didnt get much opportunity to examine them. They were mostly fast little blobs moving in the distance. They would run in spurts, as if playing a game that involved freezing when the music stopped. I did not continue the tradition of giving Big Tex raisins, simply because he never came close enough or stayed long enough for me to contemplate getting them from the pantry. However, one day i heard a “bang” and then a whole bunch of clamoring on the metal surface of the window unit on the side of the house. I looked to see if a sparrow or finch had landed there and to my surprise it was a whole ass roadrunner! He had climbed up onto the window unit and was doing his best to bite the window. He was biting and biting at the window, hopping around and assuming a fight stance.

Im used to dealing with mammals. Now when a fox, and raccoon, or a coyote is biting at inanimate things your first thought should be rabies. There are different stages of rabies but at some point in the progression of the disease the animal will experience the uncontrollable urge to bite and begin biting things like your doorstep, your fence, the window, and whatever else is in front of him/her. Knowing the dogs had rabies shots and i didnt, i left them out there with the bird and stayed inside the house. I decided to google whether roadrunners could get rabies. The internet stated that birds in fact could NOT get rabies. The internet stated that only mammals were able to contract rabies…that birds and reptiles were exempt. So i googled why a road runner would enthusiastically be repeatedly biting a window over an extended period of time. According to the internet, Big Tex must have seen his reflection in the window, thought it was another bird, and challenged it to a duel. What i was looking at was big Tex fighting the good fight for his nesting territory…against himself. Either way, he was winning. I started thinking…since it wasnt rabies, maybe this was my opportunity to further the previous owners’ tradition. I had just a handful of yellow raisins left in the pantry for use over morning oatmeal. Big Tex, satisfied that he’d shown his opponent what he was made of, hopped off the window unit and ran about fifteen feet where he stopped in the grass. I went outside and called to him. He ran a couple more feet in the opposite direction. I then tossed some raisins near where he stood. He looked at me, undecided about what in the heck i was. He did not investigate. I went back in the house thinking perhaps privacy would afford him the opportunity to investigate the snack offering. When i returned to the spot half an hour later all the raisins near the tall grasses were gone. However, the ones that landed nearer to the house remained. The ants had discovered them and set about getting groups together to lift and move the raisins underground. Big Tex was nowhere to be found, but he sure did make an entrance and put on a show for the twenty minutes he spent fighting the good fight on the other side of my window.