[Ansteorra] Ugly Duckling at Warlord

[elizabeth at crouchet.com]

For those of you that disparaged my baby bird in morning court at Steppes Warlord, I just wanted to give you a follow up and a 
progress report. 

That bird has grown and developed greatly, changing almost by the hour over that weekend. It turns out that it now stands 
nearly a foot tall when it tries to. 

Obviously I was misinformed when this bird was identified as a baby Great Tailed Grackle. I can't tell how many times I was 
instructed by my "friends" to kill it. 

Turns out it IS a baby Road Runner! It is protected though, not as all songbirds in Texas, but as a predator bird like all the 
raptors as well (yes, including vultures). 

It is now in the hands of a Licensed Bird Rehabilitator. It is close to being too large to handle easily so it is in a good place now. 
It is now eating pinky mice and someone else is feeding it twice an hour all day. Whew. 

Road runners eat large insects like grasshoppers that eat crops and small snakes, like baby rattle snakes. They also eat mice 
that eat grain and deer feed and get inside your house. They fly rarely, they don't roost and don't mess up your car. 

I will get it back when it is grown so it can be released back where I found it. 

So all of you that told me to Kill It can just go, well, whatever. Aren't you all glad I didn't?

Thank you to those of you that DID show support either verbally or by supplying insects caught on site to feed it. 

Claire Shayhan