After more than two-and-a-half decades of visiting Death Valley National Park, you would think that I’d have see quite a few of these birds. But, no, this is the first time I have encountered a roadrunner in the park. Actually, there were two. I arrived at my campsite and was getting my gear out when a couple of them showed up to investigate my stuff.
I was surprised by how close they came. I would have assumed, especially having never run into them here before, that they would have been more shy and cautious. In any case, I grabbed one of my cameras, put a long lens on it, and managed to squeeze off a few photographs before the birds decided to go investigate someone else’s campsite.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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I was at up at the Texas Spring campground, camped right across the way from my favorite site (which I didn’t manage to claim!), #1… with the trees big enough to produce some serious shade.
It would not surprise me if it is actually the same pair. They sure seemed to think that they owned the campground!
I’m sort of relieved to hear that I’m not the only one who hasn’t seen roadrunners elsewhere in the park. I spend a lot of time there, photographing on one or two occasions every winter (and sometimes early spring), and while I’ve seen a lot of other wildlife out there… never a road runner. It was unexpected and fun to have them drop in for a visit!
Dan
Nice photo. We think we know the campground you were in, and those 2 roadrunners in fact. Roger and Harriet, we’ve named them. Just kidding. However, they are incredibly habituated to people in that campground! We managed to get some very nice photos of them too, in January and were very excited as we had only once seen one in the park and it was under a bush at the visitor’s center – and it was film days, that long ago!!