A Brief Stop at the Feeder

You had to know that it was cold because it was sunny, but out we went for a brief walk on the trail, camera in hand -- naturally. I ported my longest lens, which is a bit of a monster. I have been doing that more lately, partly because it gets me closer to things when my feet may not be able to in winter. Of course, I do sometimes wish that I had a different lens on, but live with my decision, I must.

Yesterday, it came in handy because I was able to use it to photograph the critters which frequent a backyard feeder in a house that backs onto the trail. I have walked by it many times and have just kept going, but since I had my telephoto yesterday . . .

In addition to the birds (soon to come) there are squirrels, and with that abundance of sustenance, they are not skinny squirrels. This one was isolated on the top of a snow pillar, which helps the composition a lot by eliminating distracting detail.

Of course, there were birds. The first one that I photographed was a chickadee. Describing it the first bird, makes it sound like a photographed many birds, but I didn't.

There was at least one bluejay, but as is typical of this species (in my very rudimentary opinion) is that they land, grab a sed, and takeoff in something resembling supersonic speed, One would almost have to know where they are about to land and prefocus in order to get a photo, but it was cold, and I wasn't going to stay for long.

The cardinal was much more obliging, however. He lighted, not even concerning himself to feed for a moment, and looked at me as I looked at him.

Handholding a 400mm lens at full zoom is not conducive to getting the very sharpest photos, but these are good enough to please a fellow who is not really a wildlife shooter..

I couldn't and, therefore, didn't stay long. It was near the end of our walk, and I was getting cold. At -7C/19F, my fingers were fairly freezing, so off we went.

While I wasn't shivering on the walk, it took a very long time for my core to warm up, for it was colder than I had thought, and I didn't bundle-up as well as I should have. I am a bad little Canadian, I am.