The rowan tree outside my house is a spindly thing, nothing like the handsome plane trees that London does so well elsewhere; and pretty deficient in blossom compared to the trees in other streets around the neighbourhood. It does, though, produce a healthy load of berries each year, and at some point – depending how cold the winter has been – the birds suddenly descend and strip it bare. This week seems to be the start of that process; magpies, robins, blackbirds, blue tits and great tits have all appeared, and – for the first time that I’ve noticed (though doubtless they’ve been before) – a thrush. Possibly a pair of thrushes.

I took this picture this morning on my Fuji X-t10 with the XF60mm lens. It looked utterly unimpressive on the back screen of the camera, but put into Lightroom, cropped a little, auto tone and auto white balance applied then tweaked a little, I was very pleased with the end result. It pays not to go by the camera screen too much.

It started snowing shortly after I took this, and I could have gone back to get another shot, but it was cold, damp, and I still had my slippers on. And that’s why I’ll never be Wildlife Photographer of the Year.