Zooming Around Uselessly vs. Zooming In with a Purpose

Well, I had hoped to write something interesting for this first post of the second thousand, but it's almost dinnertime, and I haven't written anything yet. My to-do list is long today -- long enough that I find myself vacillating over what's most important and what should be done next, and all that dithering has kept me from making any noticeable headway whatsoever. Levi and Gimpy will start asking for their supper in a matter of minutes, so I'll forget about posting something "meaty" and slap some photos up here. I wanted to show you these anyway.

There's a new kind of bird in our neighborhood this spring, the Mississippi Kite. I've seen several recently but didn't know what they were until one sailed overhead while I was talking with my neighbor over the fence. She knew. (Of course, just to be sure she knew, I Googled it as soon as I got back in the house.)

A day or two later I was outside again when one made several passes over the house, so I hurried back inside and grabbed my camera. By the time I got back out the door, the bird had disappeared. Oh, well. It was a beautiful day, the light was pretty, and the clouds were fluffy, so I took this photo of my garden shed and the neighbors' backyards behind it:

The little tree near the center of the picture above is one of my favorites. You'd be surprised how many times I've photographed that tree over the years, but one can never have too many photos of a favorite subject, so I zoomed in and took another one:

As soon as I took the tree photo, I checked it in the camera's LCD panel. Wait, I thought. What is that dark clump on the right near the very top of the tree?

I zoomed in as far as possible and was excited to take a third shot -- then another and another and another. That "dark clump" was the missing Kite:

Still wanting to get a better look at it, I rushed back inside, uploaded the pictures, and used photo-editing software to enlarge the images further. This, folks, in case you're interested, is a Mississippi Kite:

Pretty, isn't it? A little smaller than the Red-tailed Hawks we were seeing so frequently last year but plenty big enough to catch your attention when it flies. 

Now I'll feed the dogs. Then I'll make a new list so I can get some of today's things done at least by tomorrow.