Last Thursday and a friend and I decided to visit the Hawk & Owl Trust reserve at Sculthorpe Moor in Norfolk. I had not visited for several years which surprised me when I resalised as I was quite a regular for a time a few years ago.

It has changed, a lot of work having been completed with new hides and a special enclosure for Beavers but since they are mainly nocturnal we did not really expect to see them, let alone photograph them. And we didn't so no surprises there!!!

The entry fee had increased considerably since I last visited - now £9.00 per visit - so we both joined for £35.00 for the year and out-of-hours opening included so I will be visiting more frequently now.

The first hide appeared to be a disappointment until we realised that there were feeders at both ends, one in the sun and with a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers regularly visting - an ideal opportunity to try the pre-capture on the new camera. It took some practice but I managed some decent photos in the end.

I could not have managed shots like these with the Canon R5 so a bonus with the new gear.

Moving on to the next hide, the only bird within range was a feeding Great White Egret but that gave decent photo opportunities to add to the 100 or so that I already have in my library but these will replace some older ones that are not up to scratch by current standards.

It is getting much more frequent to try to take photos of common birds that are, in some way, different as new species are few and far between. That was the story in the next hide and this was the only shot worth keeping.

After that, we left for the Norfolk coast. Brancaster Staithe proved to be good as usual with the Turnstones back for the winter.

a couple of Little Egrets

and even a Greenshank that took flight but the auto-focus on the new camera kept up with it despite the poor light at the time.

Final call was to Thornham harbour with little showing except for this Redshank on the bank in the evening light.

The new camera worked well and I am happy with it so far but there are still benefits with it that I am yet to master.