Two Unusual Visitors

I found this fellow while sitting on my front porch the other night. It was a hot night and the air was so still and muggy. I didn't sit there long and I turned to go into the house and there he was. He didn't move at all when I touched him. We used to find these when I was a kid. We called them "Walking Sticks" As its name suggests, the stick insect resembles the twigs among which it lives, providing it with one of the most efficient natural camouflages on Earth. They generally mimic their surroundings in color, normally green or brown, although some species are brilliantly colored and others conspicuously striped. Many stick insects have wings, some spectacularly beautiful, while others resemble little more than a stump. They will pretend to be dead and may loose a limb to avoid being captured. I just left him there and he was gone in the morning. We have found these before...always near the front porch. I wonder why? I went into the house and sat down to watch TV. Joe called out and told me to look at the deck railing. "What is that bird? Some kind of a hawk?" I looked closer and found that it was a pigeon. Joe wanted to get the grill covered before dark, but I asked him to wait and we could watch the bird. We watched it slowly moving along the rail. When he came to the feeder...he didn't seem to know how to get to the seed. He teetered precariously off the deck and onto the feeder. He wobbled and the feeder was swinging. Joe went out to cover the grill and the bird just stayed there. He was wary of Joe, but wanted to eat. Finally I went out with my camera...he just sat there and posed. I noticed a band on his leg. I wondered where he belonged. He ate his fill and took off.

Two unusual visitors that day. The "stick bug" is gone....but the pigeon that I have named "Herbie" continues to come and he stays until he is full. He shares with the other birds and seems so gentle. I wonder about his life. Where did he come from? Is he lost?

Balisha