Hi Fred, I live in a similar community in the downtown area of my city. Looking out my window located many floors above the pavement I can see a large portion of the the Trinity River park. It's amazing what goes on there that can be photographed from the apartment's balcony.
There are several bird feeders down in the garden/landscape area below too. I was given permission to put them out on a trial basis several years ago. They have since attracted almost as many "feeders' as birds. Every month or so I buy several bags of Wild Bird's Patio Wise birdseed and divide it into five pound sacks to hand out my many "helpers". I'm always getting compliments and suggestions. One resident wanted to see humming birds so she monitors the liquid level in my hummer feeder and when it needs topping off will bring up a quantity of sugar water for it.
Another resident wheels her chair out into the driveway and distributes seed in several handicapped parking spaces. A flock of birds patiently wait for her by the door every morning and follow the seed out to the parking lot. No one dares park in her feeding area until all the seed has been consumed.
Whenever I want to go out with my four generation old camera to photograph birds, I just get on the elevator and push the button with the star beside it.
The lenses in my kit were upgraded to the latest versions (with superb image stabilization) over the last 6 or so months allowing the majority of my shots to be hand held. However sometimes my super telephoto "balcony" lens is taken off its permanent mounting system to the gardens with a mono-pod. And there are good times walking the block to the park to catch some of its beautiful features there from a different perspective too.
Yep, where there's a will, there's a way, Tommy. (P.S. Im only a couple years younger than you.)

There is most definitely enough in that image! Can see your reflection in that Blue Jay's eye.

Thank you for the info "joer", was just admiring your latest photo of a Bluejay and again wondering about how I might aim toward such good photography. Think I'll print and frame this post then spotlight it hanging up on the wall behind my computer.

Did you stick around to look for a green flash as the sun disappeared?

Beautiful images of flowers that bees are enjoying. Never have seen green bees though - guessing they are bees since their body shape seems to be the same as the typical domestic honey bee in the same photograph.

Hi, being in my eighth decade too has made me very appreciative of what there is that I can and enjoy doing as the essence of your post suggests you do. Let’s keep it up!

Wow, been a member for just over a year and have greatly enjoyed moving far ahead in my photography skills since then. Linda was one of my favorites! Thank You!

Fuzzy bees are young.
To explain; bees construct their slabs of honey comb only far enough apart to allow a bee to crawl between them. The nectar gathering workers make multiple trips into and out of in between the comb rubbing their backs the whole while they are in the hive. The photo shows a nice coating of fuzz on that young bee but after a while she will develop a slick back. About this time her wings will be frayed and worn so much that she will soon not be able to complete a round trip out for more nectar and back to the hive.
The hive’s cycle continues to repeat itself.

Nice images of a very young bee!

"How Do You Pick Your Camera Rig?"

By allowing my rig to slowly evolve based upon what I enjoy photographing at the time.

Truly a "golden hour" capture!

So the guy with gigabucks worth of equipment hanging on his person gets to skip to the front of the line?

Enjoying this thread, thank you. There is a slight glimmer of desire here to ditch my 40 year old Manfrotto tripod, it seems to have quadrupled in weight lately. My first impression is the completely different bracing on a few CF tripods. Haven't actually handled one but just spreading the legs seems so simple compared to having to deal with all the knobs and levers to adjust both the leg length and "spread angle". Then there are the struts to contend with under the Manfrotto. Maybe I need to read a few reviews then go to the store for an up close and personal look/see.

Not poking the bear here, just my 2 cents worth: FoV is a spec right up there with mm when looking for a new/different lens for my photography hobby enjoyment. I've traded perfectly good lenses of the same mm to get a more appropriate FoV (greater most of the time) for what I want to capture. Current cameras work with so many pixels cropping isn't much of a concern.

Sometimes the horse will drink!