Picnic Lunch with a Roadrunner

It was a beautiful spring day, just perfect for getting out to photograph the desert in bloom. I called an artist friend and suggested we take our cameras and a picnic lunch and go to the Lake Mead Recreation Area. I needed some reference photos for a series of drawings I was working on in pen and ink. My friend wanted photos of the desert flowers. The Lake Mead Recreation Area was perfect.

Winter rains had been plentiful so the flowers were in abundance. After two or three rolls of film were taken of beavertail cactus, globe mallow and a number of flowers I am still trying to name we decided to find a shady spot to picnic and relax. So far I hadn’t seen one desert critter.

We were enjoying our chicken sandwiches and trying to decide were we might find gambles quail and road runners when I saw a movement to my right in the bushes. I stopped everything except breathing and watched the bush. Finally I could make out the head of a road runner watching us. I told my friend we would just ignore the bird, and I took a piece of chicken out of my sandwich and gently tossed it in the direction of the bush, picked up my camera and waited.

Not only did the road runner come out to eat the chicken but it came within three feet of us as if it was asking for more.

Good thing I made extra sandwiches.

He paraded back and forth like a good runway model.

His reward? A good chicken sandwich. My reward?

A roll of close up photos that I have for reference and fond memories.