Eastern Sierra
Wildlife Care volunteers recently returned to the wild a roadrunner,
hit three times on Highway 395. While the ability to survive
catastrophe is usually attributed to a certain genius coyote, after a
few weeks under the care of the volunteers this road runner took off
into the brush just north of Bishop.

Cindy Kamler with Eastern Sierra Wildlife Care reports that a local
resident ran over the bird on his way into Bishop to do some shopping.
The man felt bad about it and returned to bury the roadrunner after he
finished shopping. To his surprise the bird was still alive and
kicking. When he tried to catch the bird, the roadrunner ran back out
onto 395 where he was run over by an SUV, and then a semi.

Somehow the bird was still alive after all that. Cindy Kamler calls the
roadrunner a miracle bird times three. It had some broken bones and
some head trauma, but the volunteers were able to nurse the roadrunner
back to health.

Kamler says that roadrunners are in the cuckoo family and can run up to
forty miles per hour. They eat mice, snakes, bird eggs, insects, and
are even known to eat rattlesnakes. With a wide variety of animals at
the Eastern Sierra wildlife Care center at Keoughs hot springs, its
not always an easy task finding the right food for the right animal.
For the roadrunner, the volunteers had to stuff a dead mouse into the
bird every day. Not the variety the roadrunner was used to, but
effective.

Cindy Kamler wants to remind everybody that with baby animal season
coming up, Eastern Sierra Wildlife Care will hold a volunteer
orientation this weekend where they will teach basic rescue techniques
and talk about their program. The volunteer training is this Sunday at
the Union Bank Meeting Room in Bishop from 3-5pm. For more information
call 872-1487.

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