A Special Moment

As most of you know, we have a resident Roadrunner whom we call Simone.  Well, Betty and I had a special moment with Simone today.

We were finishing up feeding the horses their lunch.  During this time, Betty prepares their grain and supplements that we give them for dinner along with their hay.  I had finished cleaning up the manure and cleaning out their water tank, so I came into the tack room to talk with Betty as she finished her chores.

After she finished we walked out onto the little porch that's outside our tack room.  It's small - about 3' deep by 5' long.  Just as we got onto the porch we hear this clicking sound and looked down and there was Simone.  She had come around the end of the stall and was about 5' away from us.  We both stopped and stood as quietly as possible.

We expected her to run the other way since we were so close, but that didn't happen.

She kept making a clicking sound with her beak and looking up at us.  I talked back to her - asking her if she was having a good day (I know, stupid, but when you're starting a conversation with a Roadrunner you have to start light).  She kept clicking and started to walk toward us.  She got about 3' from us and we thought that would probably be it, but no.

She kept clicking and coming closer and eventually jumped up onto the little porch - looking at us all the time.  At this point, she was only about a foot and a half from both of us.  She stayed there for several seconds and then jumped back down and moved in front of us, again about two feet away. 

We have no idea what would have happened next because at that time a covey of quail came flying from the back of the stable heading for our courtyard.  If you've ever been around flying quail they make a "wooshing" sound with their wings.  This distracted Simone and she decided to walk over to the horses' water tank to get a drink.

Our special moment was over so we walked back to the house.  It was a great few minutes.

PS:  The picture of Simone above was taken just yesterday when she was on our picnic table just outside our living room windows.