Taking it easy

Tonight I stopped by to see my folks after work, and once again they were nice enough to offer to feed me. So I got to put my feet up, have a beer, and let the photos come to me. It's a wonder I don't do this every night...

We begin with a chickadee taking a bath:







A male hummingbird sitting in the blue spruce near the back porch; if I hadn't happened to catch a glimpse of its red throat as I looked around I probably never would have noticed it was there:



Two male Baltimore orioles:



An indigo bunting came in to use the feeders as we sat on the porch:







A red squirrel perched in a nearby tree:



I happened to catch this chipmunk doing a bit of personal grooming:



I liked the interplay of the light and green leaves against the birches:



And, of course, I wouldn't dare spend time with my parents without coming home with some photos of Kaylee. In this shot, you can see the paper towel tube I brought with me for her to play with:



Warily watching my mom approach, ready to take the tube out of reach in an instant:



Eventually she did give the tube up to Mom, who faked a throw to get Kaylee a little ways away. Then she got Kaylee's attention by showing her the tube:



And then Mom threw it:





Finally, a couple of shots I just thought came out really nicely: