Steyning

What was meant to be a quick trip along the Monarch's Way in search of Whinchats or a possible Wryneck became a marathon hike around Steyning Rifle Range. The upshot of several hours walking on the downs was that I dipped on any Whinchats and never saw hide nor hair of a Brown Hairstreak. However I did manage to snap an obliging Migrant Hawker, Aeshna mixta.

I had a leisurely lunch at Whiteways, next to Houghton Forest and then took a small walk to see if there was any birdlife. Surprisingly there were plenty of Common Redstarts but unfortunately I couldn't locate a Flycatcher of either variety. I waited for a skulking Lesser Whitethroat to pose, in the end it was a standoff, as we watched each other through leafy branches.

I was using a new combination of the Canon 300mm F4 with the 1.4 extender on the Canon 7D which gives a fairly reasonable focal length with the added Image Stabilisation that is not on the 400mm F5.6. The big advantage is that it is much lighter, the downside is that the AF is a tad slower, but a great rig for dragonflies as the minimum focus distance is less than 6ft.