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~ It seems Beijing's sparrows celebrate the Winter Solstice and the continuation of life through tough seasons through remaining close together and feeding…these images are the happy results of happenstance…I glanced out of my kitchen window and spotted a flock of sparrows flying into a leafless Ulmus pumila…on impulse, I attached the EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II super telephoto lens to the EOS 1D Mark IV in order to achieve maximum reach towards the tiny and distant birds…they flew to a rooftop from the Siberian Elm, then flew back, all of which was captured by these handheld shots…for purposes of comparison, I've taken a shot of the same scene with the Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 50mm f/2 ZE normal lens, which depicts what I see out of my kitchen window, thus underscoring the high degree of magnification possible with the super telephoto lens…a magpie may be discerned in the Zeiss lens photo, perched where the sparrows were