Swift

 As many are already on their way south I tried to take in some really close encounters this morning when it was cool along the Humber bank and the birds were feeding low down

Swifts in flight

with a cold NE wind blowing the Swifts were low down over the pits today so I tried some shots with the Canon R62 and the 400DO2 plus the 1.4x - light was at a premium 

 

Swifts

 some images with the Canon R6 and the 400DO2 plus 1.4x converter - I have been impressed, not impressed, disillusioned, more impressed and baffled so far by this camera but today it seemed to be finding Swifts against a field pretty well and sticking on them -- finding birds against a bland sky seems more problematic but more practice needed 

All ISO 2500, 1/400th second at f5.6 - run through ACR and Photoshop plus Topaz Denoise AI

Swifts on a sunny. cold day

necessary conditions for keeping them low but well illuminated

First Swifts of the spring

always great to see the first back -- over the garden soon hopefully

Swifts

now if I had had this sort of gear in June 1977 when I had that Pallid Swift ! a Swift is all dark or maybe not