Mountain City Montage
by PAULINE TOM

Folks are still seeing snakes. Leslie Burich heard blood chilling rattling from behind her on her front porch, from the spot where she had just picked up a flower pot. In their back yard, the dogs found a coral snake.

Across the street in the Live Oak cul-de-sac, as many as nine fawn romp and play in Lynn Cobb’s backyard. Usually, it’s two or three.

Hummingbird feeder action has picked up to the rate usually seen in August. Keep an eye on your feeders. Refilling empty feeders may be necessary before the two-to-three days when syrup “goes bad” in hot weather.

And, walking sticks are out in large numbers. Do you know which insects they eat? They don’t eat insects. They eat leaves.

Walking stick insects are found in 290-million-year-old rocks.

I ran in to get to grab a camera for a walking stick on the rose bush, to hear from Ron that he wanted to show me a walking stick on the yard light.

Remember the year of the gigantic walking sticks, when Free Press readers took photos of walking sticks beside a yardstick? A friend exclaimed as she saw a 7-inch walking stick on the brick wall behind her back, “I’m okay with nature. I just don’t want it crawling on me.”

That struck me as funny. (My response, when a telephone solicitor disturbed me last week, struck RonTom as funny. “I’m sorry. I don’t take calls by phone.”)

If you see walking sticks mating, hang up a “do not disturb” sign in your brain. If it’s the Anisomorpha ferruginea (commonly known as “Prairie Alligator”), when disturbed it sprays an acrid fluid from glands behind the head. The coupling can last for days. You can easily distinguish female from male – she’s large; he’s tiny. (Source: Texas Parks & Wildlife)

Female walking sticks greatly outnumber males, and a walking stick female can reproduce without a male. All her offspring will be female.

Young walking stick “nymphs” sometimes curl their tails over their backs to fool predators into thinking they’re a scorpion. The adults fool predators into thinking they’re a stick.

But, at night, walking sticks can fall prey to bats. With echolocation, bats can zero in on noises made by walking sticks.

Kiss’Me’ can zero in on scorpions in the dark. His “scorpion alert” bark beckoned us to the dark dining room on Sunday night. Sure enough ….

That was after we came in from a nice evening of parking on a hill with a view – to see fireworks. We planned to watch the Kyle display from a distance. What a treat to see more than two dozen others all around us on the horizon. We pulled away at 10:30, while many were going full blast.

What a blast everyone had at the Mountain City Parade and Lawnmower Races. Congratulations to Tiffany Curnutt, who took home the first place trophy!

Tiffany had a hot tidbit at the event. Mountain City and the Sheriff’s Department are in the contract stage for a substation right here in Mountain City – in the City’s itsy bitsy building.

Hot or cold or nine days old, please send tidbits! 512-268-5678 or email ptom5678@gmail.com.

Thanks! Love, Pauline