Photographing roosting Hen Harriers - its a no light challenge

Every winter I watch roosting harriers, nowadays mainly Marsh but a few times a winter I get to look at a Hen Harrier roost and try to get some images to confirm what birds are present but I also try to convey the feeling of the spectacle which is basically difficult as its very very dull normally - that is dull in the lighting sense not in the experience sense. The key term is roost which means the birds are not usually present until after sunset and hence there is very little light for flight photography. Modern cameras have got better high ISO performance but even so images are noisy and shutter speeds typically slooooow, Last night I starte dout at 3200 ISO but quickly had to move to 6400 and then 12800 unheard of just a few years ago but even so I was only getting 1/250th and latterly 1/160th second on the 200-800 lens so most of the images were A) dull and B) not sharp. So herewith a selection with a few comments.

a 1cy male came in early but passed by and didn’t return in this nice late afternoon sun

The cmaera AF system works best of course with birds isolated in the sky but even this has been brightened considerably to show plumage detail -

More typical of the light levels that you are fighting and motion blur but some detail in the upperwing feathers allows individual identification

same individual as above 25 minutes after sunset and near the shortest day of the year - marks in the primary coverts and flight feathers with the heavily marked mantle almost suggest Northern Harrier with limited dark trailing edge to secondaries as well but presumably a 2cy bird or maybe just individual variation in younger males

with modern software it is possible to lighten just the bird, not done very well here, to bring out plumage details but to the observant it is not reality

the same male banking towards me - at times it was very close which actually added to the problem of focussing and even getting all of the bird in the same depth of field

pretty dire noise at 12800 ISO - most reviews of images taken at such high ISO levels are actually taken in brighter light when you don’t actually need to be on 12800

simply using software to bring the whole image into daylight rather than darkness looks unnatural and does not reflect the time and experience

with the closer bird actually in focus and the juxtaposition of the two males this is what I would see as a more representative roost time image

a similar shot but both birds lacking sharpness

the second older male - panning with the bird almost got it shrp even at 1/250th

a ringtail probably the 1cy male seen earlier drops into roost