I sold my Canon 100-400mm f5.6 zoom some years ago as I was not happy with the results. With hindsight I should have got it serviced as have many friends since. It is one of those lenses that seems to need adjusting from time to time. Owners who get them serviced seem very happy with them. I was considering buying another, but after a lot of thought have gone for the latest Sigma 170-500mm. My first results from it are fine. It is sharp and gives good feather detail so I am happy with it optically. However the autofocus is painfully slow. I was amazed to watch it slowly inch its way to focus on the first occassion I used it. Not what I am used to from Canons own lenses. I will stick with it for now as the extra zoom range will hopefully be useful and I will never use it for flight shots.
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Whenever I go after waxwings I get distracted by thrushes. Somehow I find myself more interested in the redwings, fieldfares and blackbirds etc that are often found on the same berries. This winter in the hard frost Cannock Chase in Staffordshire provided lots of opportunities in some of the best wintery conditions for years. I am still processing the pictures and not reached the redwings and song thrush pictures yet.
Blackbird on rowan berries
Fieldfare on hawthorn
Fieldfare on hawthornFieldfare on hawthorn
We were suprised how long we were able to keep the kingfisher coming to the site as the lake has been frozen over for a long time now. Finally however we have been defeated by the deep snow preventing access down the long dirt track. The kingfisher has sensibley moved on.
We hope to resume the workshops when the weather warms up and hopefully the U.K’s best trained kingfisher takes up residence again. In the end we could get him landing on whatever we wanted and even stand on one leg whilst singing Waltzing Matilda to order. More usefully we could get him to hover in front of the hide whenever we wanted.
Hovering to order
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