This afternoon I was mentioning to my wife some unimportant point about how cute the little roadrunner I saw last evening was, when she said "oh! Sadie (the dog that recently had pups) killed it. Sorry." She's a native Texan, and probably misunderstands how much I liked having a roadrunner around, or she wouldn't be so blase' (or else she's just cruel and wicked - no comments from the peanut gallery please). So I went out out into the yard with a heavy heart and much trepidation, and as I approached the feathered form in the yard my heart lightened - could it be? - was it just a dead mockingbird (don't get me wrong, mockingbirds are great, they're the Texas state bird and all, but we have LOADS of mockingbirds around here)? But no, it was a roadrunner. Good news was that it wasn't the roadrunner in the picture, but a baby (I presume, as it was 1/4th the size of the one in the picture). I'm sure that that is an indication that that roadrunner has a nest around here somewhere.
Tonight I ran out to the store for a minute to get some gasoline, some beer and some fried chicken (yes, I realize that's ironic) and when I turned back into my driveway, guess who is here? That's right. I guess I have a regular roadrunner family here now.
Any ideas how I can
a) Locate the nest (just for picture taking of course)
b) keep my miserable dogs from killing the rest of the babies?