I fed Spike, the roadrunner a mouse. He carried the mouse about 10 feet from me. Just then, a merlin swooped in to within inches of Spike. Spike dropped the mouse and ran. The merlin flew over my head. All of this happened in a second and without a sound. I lifted my jaw from the ground. The merlin landed on the telephone pole behind our house. Binocs showed the merlin didn’t have the mouse, which was still where Spike dropped it.
The next time I fed Spike, he dropped the mouse and walked away – something he has never done. He came back after a minute. He’s learned it’s a jungle out there, even in the desert.
This occurred three days after we watched a merlin take a white-winged dove around the corner from us.
