White-tailed Lapwing revisited

Decided that I should pay the long staying White-tailed Lapwing at Blacktoft another visit as it was two months since my first encounter so on the 26th I arrived to news that it was absent! Soon located it on Marshland but the weather just got worse and worse, dull, duller and then wet and dull and windy. By lunchtime it moved to Singleton but was no closer and then hid behind an island. I resorted to some food and returned early afternoon as things started to look a bit brighter. It had move to Townend and as I walked in the hide it was quite close to the left in better light. In the next hour it flew further away then had a bath and eventually walked towards the hide and at its closest the sun came out - for once this autumn things came together. 

When I bought the Canon R6 I traded in my 2x converter as I had never had any decent results with it with the 5D4 but watching videos of people using converters with mirrorless cameras and often lacking a bit of power with the 1.4x I had bought a new 2x earlier in the week and was keen to try it out with the 400DO2 making an effective 800mm f8 on the R6. Wondering if I had made another expensive mistake I was more than chuffed when I saw the results on this bird. A few of these are with the 1.4x but most with the 2x mark III -- I had considered moving to the Canon 100-500 but with most suppliers saying don't hold your breath on deliveries and having to take a big hit on the cost of my 400 DO2 decided to stick with what I have 

early morning roosting distantly on Marshland

Pink-footed Geese - Moon

Thought about this shot the other morning with a decent sized moon over the garden but getting the passing geese  in the right position is a work in progress. Up to 10,000 Pink-feet passing the garden at the moment morning and evening

Local Pintail

 All of the local sites where Pintail occur have failed to provide me with any decent images and in spite of a winter with over 140 birds at Alkborough my images remained poor at best so yesterday it was nice to finally come across a trio of birds that accepted my presence and to get some better images. Had to shoot over a strip of reeds so no chance of getting low but certainly an improvement on my old shots. One of our best ducks. 

Jack Snipe

 One of 12 seen this week in a dedicated Snipe/Jack search effort - the only one seen on the deck although two were within 10cm of my boot! 

Lake District october

 My first UK Dipper for a lot of years, just don't put in any effort to see them! only took my 70-200 f4 lens with me so habitat shots - also some scenery from a day around Grassmere when the dodgy knee managed to get to the top of the rather small Helm Cragg - 

Easedale Tarn

Grey Phalarope

an advanced juvenile / first-winter Grey Phalarope at Alkborough earlier in the week; I literally had 30 minutes before we set off for the Lakes and the light was non-existent but went for 2000 ISO that produced 1/250th second -- certainly have better Grey Phal images but a small highlight in a very very dull autumn