Earlier this week, a little box arrived from Adorama - the 1.4 Canon extender was here! Now, you may think that 600mm with the 1.6 crop of the 7D Mkii is already long enough, but you can rarely have too much reach for photographing birds. Adding the extender gives a 35mm equivalent focal length of 1,344mm!

Eager to see whether the IQ holds up, I had an early morning bird over at Kenilworth Park. An American Kestrel, hanging around the fenced area at the very end of the road, provided a very suitable target.

American Kestrel, Kenilworth Park, Washington DC1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400

Ouch, that's so sharp - and I've not even calibrated the lens yet. Unlike the 600mm on its own, no strong evidence of front/back focusing - but I'll still be setting up Michael Tapes LensAlign Focus Calibration System to check whether there's any need for an AF micro adjustment.

And then from the car - resting on the wing-mirror (must remember my beanbag next time)!!

American Kestrel, Kenilworth Park, Washington DC1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400

The two Vesper Sparrows were still in exactly the same place in the grassy area just by the gravel track to the river, but didn't perform as well as they had over the previous weekend. However, an obliging Song Sparrow gave further evidence of just how dam good this combination is...

Song Sparrow, Kenilworth Park, Washington DC1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400

All shots are jpegs straight from the camera - having too much fun to spend time editing the RAW files!!!

Other highlights from the morning were 3 American Pipits and my first Barn Swallow of the year.