Tuesday Bird Blogging: Roadrunner Edition

Mark Justice Hinton, who lives a couple of blocks over from my house, has a delightful post up about Spike, his neighborhood roadrunner, asking some nuanced questions about what counts as a “pet”:

Although he isn’t really our pet nor do we want him to be, if you name a creature, feed it, and miss it when it doesn’t show up, someone is a pet. Perhaps we are Spike’s.

Another neighbor-in-common, who owns a shop up the road, was telling me he and his wife feed the roadrunners in their Albuquerque neighborhood. For me, bird feeding is limited to seed blocks (intended for the woodpeckers but fine fare for the sparrows, finches and doves) and thistle seed for the goldfinches. Oh, and hummingbird food as well.

I’ve a friend out in California, a fellow water wonk and long time writer on that state’s native plants, who eschews the hummingbird food entirely and goes with targeted flowers instead. She says the hummingbirds love it.

What’s your approach to backyard birds?