Mt. City Montage
by PAULINE TOM
Salli Wilson on Maple wrote, “We have a really dark – I would say black-white-tailed fawn that has been coming to our yard to eat. He/she is the same size as all of the other fawns, but does not have any spots on it, and is dark dark. I looked on the Internet and the articles say that they have been spotted in Central Texas but they are very rare. One article says they are ‘the rarest of the rare’ – even more so than albino deer.”
RonTom thought he saw a lamb, when he first spotted the newborn melanistic fawn scampering about a month ago in Lynn Cobb’s backyard. It’s quite the sight, and I hope to have a good photo next week.
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Diane Kreji sent a tidbit, “The baby screech owl that was in our pool a few weeks back has decided he likes us because we saved his life. He brought three of his friends to drink water out of our birdbath in the backyard. We were in the pool just as the sun was setting ... I was warning some of Susie’s teacher friends that were visiting about the bats that come out at dusk and dive-bomb the pool for mosquitoes. Someone said, ‘What is that in the birdbath?’ We looked and four little owls were drinking water and having a pool party, also. They were so cute.”
At church this past Sunday, Rick Tarr shared word of the cute baby owls at his house on Live Oak Drive. An owl claimed the nestbox he and his grandson built for squirrels. It might be that the Tarr’s owls visited the Kreji’s backyard. It’s not far as the owl flies. Screech owls provide a natural pest control service. They eat roaches and rodents and other critters that come out at night.
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Katy Moffitt on Cedar Drive tidbitted, “I just read your article in the Hays Free Press about scorpions, walking sticks and other critters in the Mountain City neighborhood. I see them all the time! I didn’t even know people reported them though. I found a scorpion right by my purse in my bedroom earlier this week and there was a huge walking stick above our garage door for a day, I took a picture on my phone and attached it if you were curious as to the size of it. Didn’t mess with him and he was gone the next day. Never seen a snake yet though. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”
(Twice recently I saw long and slender snakes slithering into pebble-size holes in our stone exterior. I hope they’re eating scorpions.)
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Yes, readers, please tidbit anything of any interest related in any way to Mountain City. Email [email protected] or leave a message at 512-268-5678.
