Mite-y funny

Okay, so scratch that. Turns out I am not very good at looking at my appointment cards and instead just remember what day and time I say I'm available for the appointments. I said I could do anything after 3pm. So I thought my appointment was at 3pm. Oops, I just looked at the card and it says 1700hrs, or 5pm. Sorry Ben and Laura, that means we'll be leaving a little later tonight! At least I got everything else I needed to do today done and didn't have to rush back for my nonexistent appointment at 3pm. hehe

Anyhow, Laura and I were laughing so hard out in the field today. She was working with Ben yesterday and was measuring 12 day old chicks. The chicks in that nest in particular were just infested with mites and fleas. Several of the other birds have mites and stuff, but they aren't super bad. I guess when Laura was handling the birds, she had quite a lot of the little buggas crawling all over her hands. Instinctively she starts squishing them. Ben tells her not to worry because they don't bite, they only eat the feathers on the birds. (He told me the same thing too when I encountered some of them on another bird. I didn't buy it.) Laura most certainly didn't either as each time she squished one, blood squirted out of the delicate exoskeletons. She showed Ben, to which he replied that it is just their pigmentation. Ummmm, I don't know about that. Laura asked her mom about it, to which her mom agreed with her.

Wanna know the best/worse/funniest part of it??? Guess where Ben holds all the chicks as he waits to measure them? In his felt hat he wears all the time!!!! GROSSSSSSSSS! We couldn't stop laughing and guessing at how many creepy crawlies he has roaming around his head. Ewwww, yuck! I will definitely be more aware of any noggin scratching he does. But even if he won't admit that they bite, don't you think they could be chewing on his hair if he thinks they eat the feathers of the birds? I don't know, but I am going to continue putting my birds in the two bird bags each of us have as part of our banding kits. As gross as it is, I can't help but smile just thinking of it!

PS. I just got an email from PC and my estimated departure date has moved up to mid-April!!! Ahhh, I better hope I can finish up all this med stuff down here! But I'm super excited!!!