A different lens to try

Peter and John both arrived with long telephoto lenses for me to try last Wednesday following my plea to see if anyone could lend me one to try out before my trip to Shetland.  (Thank you to both of them.)  So today I’ve been trying out Jeff’s 100-400 for my Canon.  I went to have a look at the birds on the lake where Merv helps out and he was right, there were quite a few exotic looking species among the Canada geese and mallards.  I think this is an Egyptian Goose  Red-breasted Goose (makes more sense - I’ve looked them up now). I don’t think I had quite as much success with this lens as I did with the Olympus 300mm the other day.  Possibly for all kinds of reasons, i.e. a very bright day and I was there around mid day.  A very long lens when fully extended and I’m not sure it would balance well on the tripod I want to take away with me.  (I’ll try that out at home I think.). It did have the advantage of the zoom so I could adjust for two birds or one, but I’m not sure that it’s the lens for me.  Though I did get a few decent sparrow photos when I tried it out yesterday.

My wildlife record for today is a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly on the orange wallflowers I planted the other day.  It has been a beautiful and warm spring day.  And - I’ve never seen a heron sunbathing like this before (see extra).   And there’s a heronry in the willow tree with four or five nests and a typical clacking of beaks.