Quail - lucky break

 seldom you get to see a Common Quail so this was a bit of real luck - using the car as a blind and the Canon 400 DO2 with 2x converter on the Canon R6 between downpours and showers yesterday -- the encounter was over in less than a minute 

A new lens tested on local wildlife

 Have been looking for a lens that focuses closer then my current 400 DO 2 which is a bit limited on small insects only having a close focus of 3.3m and is also light weight enough to carry around all day in summer - contemplated the Canon RF 100-500 but at nearly £3000 its a daft investment for the summer so I started looking at the new RF 100-400 lens - it focuses down to 0.88m and weighs just 635gms measuring 8x16.5cms but would the quality be good enough; a recent review by Duade Paton https://youtu.be/jVdQT0m3lok sounded very promising for close subjects - Clifton Cameras (no affiliation) https://www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/ were doing it at £650 with free delivery, I opted for 305 days but it came the day after ordering, first class service -- at £650 it costs less than 10% of the price of my 400 DO 2 which is currently £6729! so just how good could it be? Its not weather sealed and Canon skimp and don't give you a lens hood and there is no tripod collar but at they weight who needs a tripod -- 

The last 3 days have been pretty dire light wise but had a go at my garden Wood Mice and a few soft targets at Waters' Edge on 3200 ISO mainly, all with the Canon R6 -I have been surprised at the results - here is a selection - it certainly seems to live up to the review and looking forward to trying it out on some butterflies and odes come the spring 

Long-tailed Tits and lichens

watching this flock of Long-tailed Tits this afternoon and was left trying to work out what they were feeding on? constantly picking at the lichens on the branches and trunks of the ash trees but surely not eating the lichen but maybe finding something under the lichen?

I am getting more used to the Canon R6 and learning to appreciate the real features that make bird photography so much easier - the auto-focus is very very good with the eye tracking working really well even on passerines, the EVF allowing you to see what exposure you are getting and to adjust it instantly with a quick turn of one wheel, totally silent shooting with the Electronic shutter means zero disturbance of feeding birds which is maybe one of the most important features, the high ISO performance and the superb quality of the sensor just make for a game changing performance compared to my previous DSLR's and I loved my Canon 5D4's 

Black-tailed Godwits - moult and electronic shutter in low light

 on a dull and wet morning with constant slanting rain I sat watching the Killingholme Black-tailed Godwits; all Icelandic birds the population using the Humber has risen from a high of 63 in the autumn of 1989 to over 7000 in recent autumns but this is only part of the story; up to 7000 have been counted at one time in the roost at Killingholme pits but observations of colour ringed birds have shown that there is a high turnover of birds particularly later in the autumn, September - October and it is likely that over 10,000 birds use the Humber as a staging area each autumn with up to 3500 wintering. At this time of year all the birds are adults undertaking their post breeding moult with early arrivals already having dropped inner primaries and coverts and some central tail feathers while other more recently arrived birds have yet to start their moult. Up to 30 Knot were in the roost. 

Today the light was a bit dire and I was using 4000 ISO on the Canon R6 to get 1/2000th second on flying birds - for the first time I also reverted to the electronic shutter and with these birds flying fast and jinking in all directions it proved very adept at holding the AF on the birds - something to try again on rapidly moving subjects