Last weekend, I returned from a family holiday in Gran Canaria - a great time was had by all. We have been to the same hotel for the past four years and one of the advantages for me is that there is a freshwater lake just a 10 minute walk from the hotel - La Charca de Maspalomas.

Previously I have had some good photos from there but not this year. The water level was so high that all the birds were on the far side - a protected nature reserve with no public access - too distant for any photography. The annoying part was that I spotted 34 species of birds in the area and three that I had not photographed before - such is life.

So, with the car needing washing after 2 weeks in the drive, I went to Fowlmere RSPB, just down the road from the car wash. I  took my new 200-800 lens with the Canon R5.

Fowlmere can be good or disappointing - it was the latter. However, I continued to try out the lens - a close-up of a Mallard

and then on to the Reedbed hide to see - a large flock of Greylags and little else.

Even common birds can do something interesting at times.

so I tried something new to see the result - first I added a 1.4 converter to the set-up making a shooting distance of 1120mm

Pleased with that so I tried the 2x converter making a shooting distance of 1600mm. I have rareley been impressed with a 2x converter but it was worth a try as there was nothing else happening.

Well that cleaned up nicely in Topaz - very pleased with that, especially since it was cloudy by then and at ISO8000.

So not a totally wasted day after all.

Now back to the remaining photos from my Tanzania trip.