Raptors

Winter in New Mexico is the time to see raptors like the little hawk. New Mexico is on the migratory route for many of the birds of prey that follow the routes of many other migratory birds. Bird watching here can be very good. Living in a rural area I see many birds. We have a resident flock of quail that come through almost daily to see what might have been left by the horses and drink out of the short plastic trays that I keep filled with water for the birds, dogs and cats. And no, I have never seen one of my cats catch a bird; they prefer to go after the mice, which suits me.
There has been a large roadrunner coming around recently. We moved out here almost three years ago and had never seen a roadrunner in our yard until a few months ago. I had wondered about that as we always had roadrunners everywhere we lived in New Mexico. They are fasanating birds, with there long tails, long beaks and stop and go way of moving. But they are on the verge of being a raptor as they prefer to eat things like baby quail, mice, lizards, and snakes. They can have the mice and snakes but wish they would leave the quail and lizards alone. The quail and lizards eat many of the bugs that abound here. But nature is nature and the roadrunner is only doing what comes naturally to him.