Birds and the Moon.

Well, the day was ruined. I'd spent my one day off trying to repair the tires on my travel trailer. Not even "repair" actually. Just get them off so that I could haul the rims over to a tire shop and have new ones put on. For three weeks now I'd been struggling with that chore.

Oh, well.

I returned home, the day burnt out and left like a cold ember. I let the cats out to play in the back yard because they dearly love to go out there and just sit in the sun and wind. It makes their day a bit brighter to be able to do that, and I get a kick out of seeing them soak up the experience.

Cairo (not as bored as she looks).

But after I put them back in the house all safe and cozy, I got out the telephoto lens to see what birds would show up in the trees on the verge of the yard. They tend to stay away, or just flit by if the cats are out. When the feline pals have returned to our house, the birds come a lot closer. Still, I wouldn't get any good shots at all if not for the telephoto lens.

I had a little luck today:

Some kind of red bird. I don't know anything much about birds, so I suppose I'm going to have to learn. One of my co-workers is a bird expert. He'll fill me in.

The same bird in another tree.

This one I know: A female cardinal.

Don't know what this one is. Someone told me, but I've already forgotten.

And this one is just because. Because when I was a kid, pointing the three-inch reflecting telescope that my parents bought me at the moon, I'd have killed to be able to take a photo like this one. Daydreaming of the astronauts getting ready to set down on that planet's surface.