Both yesterday and today were moderately good days, with 37 birds searched yesterday and 28 today, though I had to stop early today as I had to catch the bus to Mörbylånga and get to the dentist in time (see below). All of the lice collected the last two days have been from Dunlin Calidris alpina, Greater Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula, and Ruff Philomachus pugnax, and no passerines have given any at all, though I did get some mites from a Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia and a tick from the first new species for me since I came back to Sweden: Little Bunting Emberiza pusilla. I have some pictures of it, but for some reason WordPress doesn’t want to upload them now…
I was also back in Mörbylånga today to revisit the dentist. It seems that the small hole I’ve had for several years had suddenly grown very much larger the last year or so, and had almost reached the centre of the tooth where the nerves are, so if I had waited much longer, they said, I would likely have got an infection and lots of pain. They repaired it, and I’m still a bit woolly in the mouth from the anesthesia.
Finished reading a collection of George Orwell’s essays called “Facing Unpleasant Facts” while waiting at the dentist’s. Damn good author. This, I believe, is the fifth collection of essays by him I have finished since I came to Sweden. I bought most of the collections I could find, as well as most of his novels and other writings, before I left the US, but not all of them arrived in time, so I borrowed some from Skyman. I won’t be able to read through them all before going back home, I guess, but hopefully most of them, at least.
Treeweasels 