A Short, Cold, Walk

It's time again for a walk in the big wide outdoors with my Sony FE 200mm - 600mm lens. It was freezing today; there was a beautiful clear sky for most of the time, but with the wind, I needed my gloves and a warm drink when I got in.

First on our tour is a Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus), not the prettiest bird in our trees, but it is still good to see wildlife. Some people think these are government surveillance drones, but I'm not so sure.

^{"A Woodpigeon sits in a tree": Photographer: @richardslater, F-Stop: f/6.3, Focal Length: 600mm, Exposure: 1/160 sec, ISO: 100, Camera: Sony α7R V, Lens: Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, Taken: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:10}

Next, I found the perennial Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) doing a silly walk along the roof of a house. The spikes mean nothing to these birds. They walk past them.

^{"A Herring Gull struts along a rooftop": Photographer: @richardslater, F-Stop: f/6.3, Focal Length: 600mm, Exposure: 1/640 sec, ISO: 320, Camera: Sony α7R V, Lens: Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, Taken: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:13}

I couldn't find any more wildlife for a bit, so I sat down and spotted some pine cones; I suspect these may be Monterey Pine as the needles and the cones match some pictures I found on my phone, but I'm not entirely sure. If you do know, let me know in the comments.

^{"Pine cones in a tree": Photographer: @richardslater, F-Stop: f/6.3, Focal Length: 600mm, Exposure: 1/500 sec, ISO: 320, Camera: Sony α7R V, Lens: Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, Taken: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:16}

I finally spotted why there were no birds; there was a cat sunning itself in the undergrowth; interestingly, this can have feline complete heterochromia - that is, one blue and one green eye, not something you see that often.

^{"A white cat with one blue eye and one green eye sits in the undergrowth": Photographer: @richardslater, F-Stop: f/6.3, Focal Length: 600mm, Exposure: 1/125 sec, ISO: 320, Camera: Sony α7R V, Lens: Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, Taken: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:16}

A [Blackbird (Turdus merula)]https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/blackbird) did pop down to the ground to hunt for food carefully - didn't stay long and was very easily spooked.

^{"A blackbird looking for food": Photographer: @richardslater, F-Stop: f/6.3, Focal Length: 576mm, Exposure: 1/40 sec, ISO: 320, Camera: Sony α7R V, Lens: Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, Taken: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:18}

Up in the trees, I did manage to spot a young (based upon its undeveloped plumage) Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) keeping out of reach of predators.

^{"A young blue tit sits in a tree": Photographer: @richardslater, F-Stop: f/6.3, Focal Length: 541mm, Exposure: 1/800 sec, ISO: 320, Camera: Sony α7R V, Lens: Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, Taken: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 14:20}

In total, I was out for about 45 minutes and took about 200 shots and covered about 0.7km; I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed my walk.