Here and There

These two burrowing owls were seen, of all places, on an area of grass between a sidewalk and the street on one of the residential streets of Marco Island where they had built their home. Burrowing Owls typically add an area of animal dung to the entrance of their home to collect insects that are attracted to it. They feed the insects to their young. Burrowing owls are small owls, standing only seven to 10 inches and weighing a little more than five ounces.

This is the Apollo 13 landing capsule that didn't quite make it to the moon. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission. Apollo 11 made a moon landing in 1969 with Neil Armstrong, Buz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Apollo 13 experienced an explosion, and the crew had to return to Earth wthout landing. This photo and the following ones were taken at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida.

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building is one of the largest one-story buildings in the world. It stands 525 feet tall and is used for assembling space shuttles and other large space equipment. For some perspective, the U.S. flag measures 209 feet by 110 feet, and each stripe is nine feet wide.

Shuttle Atlantis had 33 missions in space before it was retired in July of 2011. Its maiden voyage was in October 1985. It's the only space shuttle of the five that is on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Endeavor is in California; Discovery at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The Columbia and Challenger space shuttles, sadly, did not return to Earth due to disaster in space.

These two adult osprey were pretty active when we saw them from an observation tower on Tigertail Beach on Marco Island. Following are a few shots taken in late afternoon.