Pain-free

I woke up this morning without a pain anywhere. That's almost unheard of, so I determined to get a lot done. Of course, I ran out of time and energy before I got all done that I would have liked, but I'm satisfied with what I did get done. Such as cleaning and mouse-proofing the guesthouse (always a work in progress), watering lavishly, and many other small tasks, too numerous and mundane to mention. One thing I didn't do is photograph odes and butterflies. I can always do that, even if I don't feel well. Here's the only photo I took today. It's a Band-winged Dragonlet. I think I've posted that species here before, but never at this angle.

Kelly banded hummingbirds at CMO this morning, and in the process caught a Black-chinned Hummingbird that was newly fledged with something stuck on its leg. Kelly determined that the "something" was the head of an ant. Apparently, an ant clamped down on the leg and the hummer tried to rub it off, leaving just the head firmly fastened. Kelly decided not to intervene due to the likelihood that the leg would hemorrhage. The ant head appeared deeply embedded.  To quote Kelly, "The [ant's] pinchers were actually around the leg bone. I personally think the head will eventually fall off. There is obviously blood flow to the foot at present." Of course, we can't know what will happen in the future. The bird was slightly underweight, but not disturbingly so.

Photo courtesy Kelly Bryan