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