What have you seen

Cleaned out some Doris debris from the pond this morning and noticed there was a lot of frog spawn in the filter.

The afternoon was spent watching a lone Short Eared Owl hunting for food. It took 2 hours before catching a mouse or vole, it was to far away to be sure.

The other pic is I believe a female corn bunting, but happy to be corrected.

Excellent pic's.

I'm not sure, but I would have said female Reed Bunting the beak looks a bit smaller than the Corn's..

I would happily kill for the chance to have some time with a SEO.  I might try Oulton marsh this afternoon as my wife is going out.

Reed bunting it is.

I think I might stay clear of you in your search for the SEO.

The pics were taken with 100/400 with a 1.4 converter on a full frame sensor. The owl does not come very close, so the pics are cropped heavily. Your bag may prove very useful if you can set up near a regular perch, which our ones seem to do. They do not land often, only 3 times on perches in nearly 2 hours, only dropping when they see prey, which is not very successful. Not surprising when you consider the speed they cover the ground in search.

I would have no chance of any pictures as I do not have the 1.4 ex.

It is now blowing with rain supposed to be on way, so afternoon at home..Grrrrrrrr!

Which camera do you use, Unless it is a full frame sensor, you will have either a 1.3 or 1.6 crop due to the sensor size.

GL

I have a notion we had part of the above conversation previously, and I think you said that you used a 70D.

If this is correct, Your camera sensor has an effective crop value of 1.6 which would make your camera / lens combination 160/640 with an aperture range of F4.5/F5.6.

If you then attached a 1.4 converter, then you would get 224/896 and an aperture range of F5.6/F8

Both options would be quite a bit longer than my camera/lens/converter combination of 140/560 aperture range F5.6/F8

Even without the converter/extender on your camera, you have a longer effective focal length.

The advantage you would have with your set up, even without the converter, would be a longer length and larger max aperture as I loose one stop with the converter.

Hope your eyes have not glazed over, but in simple terms you should be able to get good pics of the SEO's.

Blue.....for some reason my Samsung will not let me write BM to start this response.

Fantastic reply and I really have no idea about the differences between settings.  I am happy that you say I have a good chance of getting decent shots.  Perhaps this is why I am happy with most of the results that I get.

I know that adding more glass in front of the camera is not always beneficial and could add to the problem of poor light.

I have had some very good results with my combination, the 100  400 gives me quite a bit of flexibility, coming down to 6 feet at times and I have had very good insect shots.

Looking at some people lugging Jodrell bank around, if I did that, I don't think I would get any more enjoyment out of it.

No photos but I did see an Otter and Kingfisher catch fish yesterday.

Just thought to illustrate what my lens gives me....the attached picture was just 6 feet away from me.

Super pic, nothing wrong with your lens or settings.

Started at Bungy Common plenty of Long Tailed Tits, Chaffinches and a single Stonechat.  On the way home saw 3 x Hares boxing then diverted to Bradwell where we watched 5 x Waxwings.