From Misty Briggs

Not today, Meeper!

Burrowing Owl vs Roadrunner, Arizona, USA

It seems I have been lied to all these years!

He didn’t want that seed at all! He wanted to eat things like our owl friend here! 😮

The roadrunner is an opportunistic omnivore. Its diet normally consists of insects (such as grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles), small reptiles (such as lizards and snakes, including rattlesnakes), rodents and other small mammals, spiders (including tarantulas), scorpions, centipedes, snails, small birds (and nestlings), eggs, and fruits and seeds like those from prickly pear cactuses and sumacs. The lesser roadrunner eats mainly insects. The roadrunner forages on the ground and, when hunting, usually runs after prey from under cover. It may leap to catch insects, and commonly batters certain prey against the ground. The roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes; it is also the only real predator of tarantula hawk wasps. (Roadrunner wiki)

  • decolo@piefed.socialEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    There was a roadrunner that hung out in my neighborhood for a few months at a previous residence. They are so engaged and intelligent-seeming compared to hawks and owls, almost like a dog

    altr

  • Avicenna@programming.dev
    12·
    2 days ago

    What else was a lie? Are you going to tell me that you can not walk on air for five seconds before you notice it and then start to fall down.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      9·
      2 days ago

      I mean, there are many things that are not a problem until they are observed. If one puts on their shirt inside out or forgets to bring their wallet to the store, neither of these things causes awkwardness or dilemma until those things are finally noticed after making a good bit of progress in one’s day. We have all witnessed seemingly oblivious people make it through life despite their best efforts to cause themselves total ruin. Who’s to say the right individual could not successfully progress for a time off a shear ledge?

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      6·
      2 days ago

      It also would have been fun to see the owl slide into its burrow at the last minute, Indiana Jones style.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      9·
      2 days ago

      Not I, Misty Briggs is the photographer. She photographs a lot of Burrowing Owls I share here.

      I only got to see one at the National Aviary. I snuck into the room as quite as can be, and was it ever mad about it! It flew up and sat on the sprinkler and gave me a glare even more distasteful than the owl in this photo.

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          2 days ago

          Oh it was very mad. It couldn’t have gotten further away from me.

          I had been in the room twice trying to see it, with not luck. Before we were about to head out, I gave it one last go and creeped into that room as stealthy as could be and I caught it and it was so mad!

          Thank goodness for the background noise of an indoor public space.