I’m A Murderous Scumbag

While returning to the Davis Mountains this morning to continue my thesis work, I had a Greater Roadrunner dart right out in front my car going 70mph (the car, not the roadrunner).

The cloud of feathers in the rearview mirror confirmed that I nailed it.

I turned around and went back to retrieve the speciman for our natural history collection. As if I didn’t feel guilty enough, the bird was a female carrying a dead Cnemidophorus lizard (commonly referred to as whiptails or racerunners). No doubt she was likely returning to the nest to feed young.

What made it even worse was that she was in pretty bad shape (besides being dead and all). I’d ripped out all her tail feathers in the collision. I salvaged the specimen. We’ll see if my professor wants a tailless roadrunner in the collection.

While the birding gods should have frowned upon me for my inadvertent misdeeds this morning, for some reason they instead blessed me not once but twice.

Coming back to the Davis Mountains Preserve up Highway 118, I nearly choked when I noticed a Turkey Vulture with nice white bands on the underside of tail. I brought the car to a screeching halt, turned around, and observed a nice Zone-tailed Hawk for some 15 minutes as it soared leisurely, at times directly overhead.

For those that have never heard of Zone-tailed Hawks, let me briefly explain. They look almost exactly like a Turkey Vulture. There are subtle differences which easily seperate the two, but one must look closely to see these. They even hold their wings at the same angle, and rock back and forth slightly as they soar, exactly like a Turkey Vulture. The purpose of this is to conceal their true identity from their prey (mainly small birds, rodents, and lizards), which does not see Turkey Vultures as a threat. Zone-taileds are also fairly uncommon in Texas and are on the state’s threatened species list.

As if that weren’t enough, upon returning to the preserve, I noticed a bare tree at quite a distance on a hillside. When I looked through my binoculars, it was an illusion — nothing there. However, hovering right near it was a White-tailed Kite. While this bird is fairly common in south Texas, the west coast, and southern Florida, it’s a heck of a bird out in extreme west Texas. I wouldn’t have even seen it if I hadn’t taken a look at my phantom bird on the dead tree.

All I can say is that I’m not worthy of the day which I received.