Ticks Play Dirty This Spring

After doing a bit of birding this spring, I was heading home when what looked like a distant sandhill crane caught my attention.  I pulled over to the side of the road and grabbed my Swarovskis...only to find a wood tick waiting for me right on the eye cup...ewwww! Ticks, the down side of the outdoors.

As I tried to get my  binos in a better position for a photo, the tick obligingly posed.  It put its little feelers out as if it were on a blade of grass, waiting for an unsuspecting mammal like myself to brush past so it could latch on and crawl around and find purchase on a tender fleshy area.  After I took the above pic, I gave the little tick a flick and away it went.  My skin will not be impaled by your hypostome this day, you crazy little arachnid.