A man was clearing land in the west Texas city of Odessa when he realized he had made a horrible mistake: he ran over a bird’s nest and smashed the eggs inside.
But one egg remained intact, and he went to extraordinary lengths to try to save it in a saga that has captured national US media attention.
Handling the surviving egg with great care, he held it in his hands to keep it warm – and he drove 500 miles to his home in Lufkin on the opposite side of the state.
The journey took 11 hours.
On the night of 30 May, the egg hatched. After scrambling to find a place close by that could suitably care for the bird, the man concluded there were none. So the man’s wife drove 160 miles to a non-profit bird rescue center on the outskirts of Dallas in Hutchins, Texas.
The bird’s savior handed a box holding a small, newly born roadrunner to a volunteer at Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, the facility said in a Facebook post.
The volunteer – 70-year-old retired attorney Paula Hagan – was shocked by the lengths the couple went to in order to save this animal, she told the Washington Post.
“I just couldn’t believe it. It just tells me they’re both very kindhearted,” Hagan said, according to the Post.
Despite great efforts to save him, the roadrunner Miles died at the center a few days later, the Post’s report said.
The Post recounted how Miles eventually stopped being able to eat and failed to gain the weight, which is not unusual for hatchlings.
The roadrunner was reportedly named after the 1980s country song Miles and Miles of Texas by Red Steagall – a reference the pilgrimage he made to the rehab center before getting a few more days of life.
For volunteers like Hagan, Miles and the efforts by the couple who tried to save the roadrunner provided motivation to continue doing animal rescue work.
Many of the birds that the Rogers center receives are like Miles. They arrive with life-threatening injuries from animal attacks or are orphaned. They also endure natural as well as human-made disasters, abuse and automobile strikes, and most survive.
Even though Miles lived only briefly, Hagan told the Washington Post: “Working there, volunteering there, renews my faith in humanity. It’s just very moving to me to see how kindhearted they are.”
