Never say things can't get worse

Overloaded to the max and then I got sick. I might have thought I had just overdone, working in the triple-digit heat from daylight to dark every day for 2 months, but then Kelly Bryan, the hummingbird bander I work with, got sick too. Of course, we'll never know for sure, but we have to consider that handling hundreds of hummers every week and being careless about washing our hands could be the culprit. I went to the Dr. this morning, got a steroid shot, antibiotics and anti-nausea medication, so am feeling quite well now. Haven't heard from Kelly today. We missed 2 scheduled banding sessions, but can hardly miss the one tomorrow as it's at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute (CDRI) where it's been advertised and will draw observers to witness it.

I figure if the work had gotten to me I would have gotten sick way before now. But we never can know for sure. I will get religious about washing my hands after banding and not snacking during the banding process, just in case. I think Kelly had flu-like symptoms, while I just had a bad case of vertigo. It's something I've had several times before I ever started handling hummers. The hummers do winter in tropical places and according to my Nurse Practitioner, birds carry a host of bad stuff. And viruses can cause vertigo. They also can affect different people differently. So.....

Here are a couple of  photos of Kelly doing a banding demonstration during the last session at CDRI.

(That's Kelly wearing the cap)

And a photo of me retrieving a hummer. I took it from the trap and am putting it in a bag to await banding, then release.