One of the species inexplicably missing from our desert yard is Greater Roadrunner. We’ve seen it as close as Pima Wash, which runs (and this time of year actually flows) just behind the house and crosses the road a scant quarter mile away; but the extravagant ground cuckoo has always avoided our yard, perhaps the result of too many fences and too many dogs.

Tonight on my way home, though, an unmistakable twitch caught my eye–and there at the mailboxes, just a couple of turns down the long driveway from our place, was a Greater Roadrunner, stalking through the creosotes and saguaros, tail raised and head lowered in search of whom he might devour.

As I drove past, I whispered the magic words–”Gambel’s Quail, baby Gambel’s Quail…”–in hopes that he might follow me to partake of the galliform abundance in our yard proper. Hasn’t shown yet, but maybe soon!

We bought a new thistle feeder yesterday, and were happy to find it accepted by the Lesser Goldfinches right away.

Today, though, everybody else found it, and the goldfinches have been hanging around on the margins of avian society, waiting for their greedier cousins to take a breath.

It’s the ground feeders who profit most from the leaky design of our fancy new fodder station. It took the Gambel’s Quail no time at all to discover the overflow–and, of course, to bring the kids, too.