Cat scratch fever

After I got home from work this afternoon, for whatever reason I wasn't feeling all that ambitious. So I decided I'd hang around my little corner of the world and see if I got lucky in the photography department, and hopefully avoid having to muster up the energy to go out in search of subjects. Happily, I did manage to stumble into a few photo ops, starting with this House Sparrow that flew into the tree right in front of me as I wandered around outside:



I noticed some birds flying in and out of the trees and brush along the hillside that stretches behind the rest of the apartment complex, so I ambled on over. One bird in particular caught my eye when it landed, because while I couldn't tell for sure what it was, I did know it wasn't any of the songbirds I see on a regular basis either here or at my parents' house. So I employed the same method I'd used last night while photographing the House Wren: I'd take a few pictures, move forward a step or so, take some more photos, and so on. In the end it worked out pretty well, as eventually I got close enough that I felt confident I'd have no trouble identifying the bird once I'd downloaded my images—something I'm not sure would have been the case if I'd had only my first few photos to go by. Anyway, it turned out to be a Cedar Waxwing I'd been photographing, a bird that eats primarily berries and other fruit rather than seeds—meaning it tends to hang out in trees and bushes and rarely, if ever, visits the typical bird feeder:





A lucky shot I managed to take as it flew away:



As I stood around trying to decide whether to hang around and try for more bird photos or head back over to my apartment, movement at the edge of my peripheral vision caught my attention:



I'd seen this cat around before, albeit very infrequently and only when I've been over on that side of the complex. Which is a bit odd, considering we're only talking about a distance of 50 or 60 feet at most. But the fact remains that I've never noticed the orange cat over there and I've never spotted the black cat over here. Maybe they have some sort of uneasy truce going, complete with their own DMZ. At any rate, I figured it'd be silly not to take advantage of its presence, especially when it began rolling around on the ground in front of me:









Talk to the paw:



Seems as good an image to close out on as any, don't you think?