Trouble in Sock City

Remember when I ordered a boat load of Thorlo walking socks about a week ago?  Well, two days later I received an email that said there was a problem with the order, and I should call them to clear it up.  I did so, and they just asked me to verify my billing and mailing addresses.  I was then assured that the socks would be on their way to me.

I haven’t received them yet, and even though there’s been the New Year’s Holiday in the mix, I decided to check on the progress of my order.  As I tried to sign in, the company didn’t recognize my email address, and there was a message that the order had been cancelled by the customer.  What??

So I called customer service, and once again verified my addresses.  Yep, it appeared that the order had been cancelled.  I sure didn’t do that!  Then I had to start all over.  Of course, since it was the new year the total was different since the ‘buy three get one pair free sale’ was no longer on.  I let them know I was not happy about this since I had ordered them in December.  The result was I was put on hold.  Eventually, Karen, came back on line and said they would give me the sale price and one time complimentary free shipping.  I pointed out to her that their website stated that all sales over $59 automatically got free shipping, and she just sputtered around about how they were doing me a favor.  Really?

While we were talking, I checked my bank account to be sure they hadn’t already charged me for the initial order.  So now I’m waiting once again for the socks, and you can be sure I’ll be checking the order status.  The kicker to all this is that I even got a comment last week from Thorlo on my post about ordering their socks.  That comment touted their wonderful customer service reps.  Phhtt!!  So much for that!  They’re the ones that cancelled the order.  I probably just should have asked one of my kids go to a PX and buy them outright for me.

                                                                           American Pipit

Anyway, my plans for today were to do my waterbird surveys on the refuge, but there was a high wind alert.  I went to some of the areas where I have to survey, but because of the winds I decided to put that off until tomorrow.

Ruddy Duck---As breeding season nears, the males will have a blue beak, bright white cheek patch, and ruddy red feathers on their bodies.

Those high winds had many of the ducks piled up on the little islands just all huddled together.  Makes it hard to identify them when they’re all mushed together, so I’ll try again tomorrow after the winds die down.

                                                                Northern Shoveler – drake

This is what a Northern Shoveler male is supposed to look like at this time of the year.  As the weeks go by, it’s head will turn more green, the front breast will be pure white, and the rustiness of it’s sides will be more pronounced.  They are a handsome bird, but I found an oddity today.

Ready for a new word in your vocabulary?  This is also a male Northern Shoveler, but an amelanistic bird.  That means it has some lacks of pigmentation in its feathering.  I guess it also means that its bill is orange instead of the normal black color for males.  Not a very common occurrence, but that big shovel-like bill is diagnostic.  I haven’t done any scientific study on birds like this, but I just have a feeling that all those white feathers make them easier for predators to pick out.  I do know for a fact that when I was banding raptors, lure birds with lots of white in their feathers attracted the most hawks to come down on them.  Just one of nature’s anomalies. 

I’ll give the surveys another try tomorrow, and shall endeavor to put up with the sagging tops to my socks until the new order finally gets here. 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy