When I visited Titchwell on the 4th I decided to replace the macro lens of my relatively new Nikon full-frame mirrorless camera with a brand new 100-400mm zoom lens, to check whether I would get better results photographing birds than those that I had been getting for the past 3+ years from my APS-C Nikon DSLR camera with 100-400mm zoom lens. The answer was a definite 'yes!' The birds look further away in the new combination (as expected for a full-frame camera), but heavier cropping reveals significantly more detail in the birds' feathers and a cleaner image. Further improvements could no doubt be reached by replacing the zoom lens with a very large fixed focal length lens (say 600mm F4), the only problems being a combination of an extra 2Kg of weight and an extra cost of around £12,000! Since I'm a bird watcher who just likes to take decent photos of birds every now and again, I'm very happy with the new (and, to be fair, the old) combination.
Titchwell provided me with plenty of good photographic material, particularly from inside the Island Hide, where several species of wader could be seen and glimpses of a Water Rail (my first sighting of the year) could be had. At one point a Hobby came by, causing most of the waders to fly up, before they later landed only a few feet in front of the hide - giving wonderful views for a minute or two. A Little Stint, in particular, was a very popular subject for the assembled photographers. A White-rumped Sandpiper was rather more elusive but did reveal itself later in the day, when I became marooned in the Island Hide in the middle of a thunderstorm. Elsewhere a Black-winged Stilt became the 19th wader species to be seen on the day, allowing for its rather dubious origins (apparently it was an 'escape').
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