Uncooperative Birds

I only take my cats outside when they're leashed. I don't want them getting hurt of course, but I also don't want them preying on songbirds. After I took the cats back in, the back yard was packed with birds. So I figured I could get my SLR and telephoto lens and tripod and get some great photos of some of the cool birds I was seeing out there.

And what happens? They all vanish. Where before they had been landing all around me, singing and chirping doing their bird-things, suddenly they were gone.

I got two lousy photos. I think one was a starling (an invasive species) and the other a common robin.

The robin. Always reliable for a little local color.

Starling? Not sure. He flew off before I could use the manual focus to get him in a clearer shot.