Nature & You: Snake-eating bird is welcome addition to neighborhoods

The world of my youth is not the same world I inhabit today.

Some things, today, are a whale of a lot better than they were before I could grow chin whiskers.

Take, for example, that bird called the roadrunner. In central Oklahoma, this bird's population has gone from "pretty well scarce" to "observed on a fairly frequent basis."

Central Oklahoma is not over-run with desert, rattlesnakes, scorpions and cactus. Nevertheless, more and more of these fascinating birds are taking up residence in our neighborhoods.

I welcome the sight of a roadrunner. They are a comical bird that is fun to watch. As their name suggests, they rarely take flight.

A nature enthusiast with good outdoor detective skills can get quite adept at discerning their atypical footprint in the dust and sand; i.e., two toes forward and two toes back (as if someone with a whimsical bent stamped a bunch of "X’s" in the earth).

Count yourself fortunate if you, perchance, should happen to catch sight of this feathered speedster.

Continued ...