Wildfowl with the Canon RF 200-800 and 1.4x converter and the Canon R6 Mark 2
December 6th was mainly bright and sunny and with a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers at Alkborough I hoped to get a useable image for the December report; they were not close after a skirmish with two Marsh Harriers and so I tried the 1.4x converter on the RF 200-800 lens making it f13 but with the lovely low winter sun I was getting decent shutter speeds at ISO 1600 and the results were well beyond what I expected with an extender on a zoom lens giving me 1120 mm . A few of the images below. It was helpful that the Pintail and Shoveler came close to the hide thanks to the presence of two Otters and regular Marsh Harrier movements. I also took a lot of Marsh Harrier images that Ihave yet to process but even the flight shots look pretty decent.
I managed to get the best images I have ever taken of Pintail which are usually distant locally
Subtle colours were remdered by the lens and camera combo but its difficult to keep detail in the white and brown at the same time
There is so much to a drake Pintail apart from the standard side on portrait
aptly named
the bill pattern is more complex than just grey
out of five birds four were drakes an unusual proportion
beautiful speculum and uppertail coverts seldom seen in flight views but frozen by the camera
the colours of Shelduck only appear in good sunlight
drake Shoveler with its impressive bill
Love the quality of the R6 mark 2 - all taken as CRaws and converted in ACR and Photoshop
The best shot I managed of the Mergansers was this flight image as they were too far away even for the 1120 mm set up
Male Marsh Harrier at pre-roost in bush - deliberately tried to frame it with the out of focus reed taken towards the weak late afternoon sunshine - I have rather a lot of Marsh Harrier images but try to get something different when I can - inspired by the superb You Tube videos made by Andy Parkinson well worth watching if you aspire to take something a bit different in wildlife photography https://www.youtube.com/@andyparkinsonphotography
standard female Marsh Harrier flight shot
different take on a male Marsh Harrier coming in to roost
young adult male Marsh Harrier hunting - used the reeds