Photographing Marsh Harriers from a Hide - But Do I Have Enough Reach? And Tips on Hide Photography

I'm at Blacktoft Sands RSPB Bird Reserve to photograph Marsh Harriers - but do I have enough Focal Length? I'm using a Canon R6 Mirrorless Camera with EF 500mm Lens & 1.4x Extender, giving me a total 700mm, full frame. Will it be enough for these birds in flight?
In this video I'm lucky to watch both male and female Marsh Harriers displaying - part of their courtship in Spring. I also get some high speed action shots of Geese. Once editing the video and photos I noticed some heat haze which I hadn't really noticed at the time - this is something you can't do much about and it's usually a case of being patient. The only real way to reduce it is to get closer.
Watch me photographing Jays in Flight from a hide: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGKwnaivZ7J9frM
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This video was filmed with a Canon M50 and 15-45mm lens.
Equipment: Canon R6, Canon EF 500mm Mark i F/4 Lens; Canon EF Mark iii 1.4x Extender; F-Stop Satori Bag
Music:
All Hail the Queen by Dan Lebowitz
Amazing Grace by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: audionautix.com/
Here Come the Raindrops by Reed Mathis

[@BrentHall]

That harrier footage was awesome, but the way that goose absolutely face planted the water was hilarious...poor thing, lol.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Cheers man. Not bad considering I didn't have a proper camera support, lol! Yeah, I never noticed until editing the video.. that goose really does go face first! Hope you're enjoying your photography Brent.

[@Kellysher]

😊I love to see 2 of my favorite You tubers watching each other! I love both of your channels!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

And I love Brent's channel too.

[@CamillaI]

Nice one Paul down South we have RSPB Radipole & Lodmoor in Weymouth Dorset which is often good for Marsh Harriers. Magnificent Birds of Prey great video 👍

[@geofffield7805]

For hide photography I mount my gimbal on a Cam Caddie cheese plate from Amazon. Sits on the shelf and it’s height adjustable.

[@geofffield7805]

Lovely video of the Marsh Harrier in flight - don't worry about the distance - main thing is you captured it and showed it to us. Many thanks for putting Blacktoft Sands on my radar. I live about 120 miles away but I'll get there soon. Made my first visit to St Aidans last week!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thanks very much. I hope you enjoyed St. Aidans!

[@paulbaldwin2290]

Great editing Paul music including excellent slow motion birds real credit to you 👏👏👏

[@danniburgess]

Visited this site yesterday Paul and it didn't disappoint for marsh harriers. Gave me an opportunity to practise my birds in flight target and managed a lucky display from the spoonbill there too! Great location, thanks for this!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Hey Danni! That's great. Aren't they fantastic? Spoonbills too.. that's a bonus. Did you see any interaction between the harriers?

[@danniburgess]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography no interaction like your brilliant experience but plenty of them searching for prey. Saw plenty of water voles nearer the hide so perhaps they will find those soon.

[@SteveHedgesPhotography]

Hi Paul, lovely footage of the marsh harriers. I think environmental shots can work really well on occasions. I had my closest encounter with a male marsh harrier a couple of days ago. Totally unexpected, I was photographing a kestrel when this marsh harrier came into view. All the best Steve.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Cheers Steve. Sounds lovely. I agree.. and I actually really like the environmental shots.

[@radosawkarwacki4386]

Great video, very informative! I love marsh harriers and I recently had an opportunity to see one up close as it was hunting above a pond where I was photographing ducks. I'm sorry about the autofocus, but I am thankful that you included that in the video. It is so frustrating when it happens, but also reassuring to see it happen to others, too!

[@dbphotofilm]

Great footage, love hide photography

[@irena7777777]

Outstanding. Love this

[@garylevers418]

Love spending time at Blacktoft watching the harriers

[@laurelb8372]

Beautiful footage

[@SkylarkFields]

Excellent!

[@bobmann7289]

Hi Paul, been looking through your videos/ I was in the hide sitting at the side window. I did say hi. Great video

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thank you. Sorry if I didn't chat more. It's hard work making these vlogs. I hope you had a good day there.

[@Richardisonline]

Maybe the gueese are following you.. they like your photography style... cool video, Paul 😁

[@Andyhelliwellphotography]

I like the voice over you’ve done something for me to look in to in future

[@Bevieevans8]

Saw 2 at Pottetic Carr the other day. Amazing birds

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

They're lovely to watch. Beautiful flight.

[@chipsrafferty8362]

The male is stunning much like the Northern Harrier here in Florida,one of if not the most sought after to photograph raptor,by me at least.

[@tomlee812]

Marsh harriers always seem elusive or, like you, when they do come near the focus won't lock! Your experience is typical of that I see at Rye Harbour NR in East Sussex or Dungeness RSPB in Kent. This was enjoyable to watch.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Sometimes it's a combination of things - the background, their plumage, the light.

[@PeterLariviere]

Another great video of a beautiful bird...had a look on ebird to see if it is a species I might see on an upcoming (in 3 weeks) trip to South West France...and yes it looks like a bird that regularly is seen in two of the sites I am planning on visiting. So I am now armed with some good bird photography Intel!!

[@paulliversage4479]

If you're ever up in the northwest..leighton moss is very good for close up shots especially from the grisdale hide when the coots and ducks have chicks

[@johnhitchen5408]

Nice video Paul, great place Blacktoft, on my last visit I ended up using manual focus, just couldn't latch onto them with AF but worked pretty well with focus peaking.

[@recnepsmaharg]

Hi Paul - Graham Spencer (from St Aidens) here, The Double Storey Hide is where I had most success there, Marsh Harrier Landed 50 foot away. Also the hide on the extreme west of the site had good views of them too. Your video has pushed me to go there again.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thanks very much Graham. Actually meant to try that hide. Others said the end hide was best. Next time I go I'll try that hide.

[@henkvandenbergh1301]

Thank you Paul! I am heading out from Denver to south Texas this Thursday for a birding trip with a full Solar Eclipse stop in Austin. I know I need extra help with distance shots (birding, not sun 😅)so your video was very timely.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

If you like this style of video, check out my session Photographing Jays in Flight: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGKwnaivZ7J9frM

[@okay_birds]

Terrific work! Greetings from the Pacific Northwest 🌊 Declan 🦉

[@MyWildSide_photography]

Love the video footage, gave me goosebumps. I find many reserves hard to photograph from as the hides are often far away from the birds. Great vlog though and nice editing.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Very kind. Yes, hides on nature reserves often aren't the best - but like anything, you get to know what works.

[@chrisdewhurst8418]

Hi Paul another great video, Blacktoft is one of my favourite reserves to visit, and in my experience the results can very from one visit to the next, on more than one occasion I was lucky enough to get frame filling shots of Marsh Harrier when all I had was my old 400mm f5.6 prime, I've also witnessed the Duck try and chase off the Harrier there, can't remember the name on the hide, but the best one used to be the one on the far right!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Wow, frame filling at 400mm.. very nice! Yes, I was on the far right too Chris.

[@nigellumb4681]

I was sat in the hide when you filmed some of this fab watching the Marsh Harriers do their stuff.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Great to watch. The displaying was amazing. Hope you had a good time.

[@garystone6583]

Great video Paul. The Marsh Harriers are great looking birds in flight. As regards to the tripod dilemma, I use a Rollei Compact Traveler mini M 1, its metal construction and arca swiss compatable ball head fits in a side pocket of camera bag. not had any issues with holding my old 5dmk4 with sigma 150-600 and now the R6 mk2 with 1,25 or 2.0 ectenders on. rock solid.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

That sounds interesting. Good that your current set up is working for you

[@JoeMaranophotography]

Another crazy timed video. Went out myself to an area I hadn't visited in ages yesterday and spotted a Marsh Harrier almost instantly due to its white feathers around the head area. Struggled a bit with their distance but nothing I can't work on over Spring :) You got nice environmental shots and better than mine!

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Great stuff. Where are you based Joe?

[@JoeMaranophotography]

@PaulMiguelPhotography West Norfolk mate. I call where I live the Wretton rainforest 😆

[@user-ro3hx5dz9q]

Nice video Paul and great music. You do very well handholding a heavy rig of 700mm @ 1/2000 seconds. Just could not do that very well myself. No doubt Blacktoft is a great place for M. Harriers but some of the backgrounds can be awful. So picking the right hide is important otherwise you will end up with a pylon or wires running through your dream shot. Patience is paramount as occasionally they do come very close. Good tip about getting a corner seat in a hide as it improves visibility and opportunity

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Agreed, the backgrounds aren't always great - something I meant to mention in the video. Will definitely try a different hide next time I visit.

[@leo1066]

Great video of the Harrier and the accompanying music. Love your work. I have a question: As the Canon R6 has a 1.6 crop factor mode, what are the comparisons of using that in stead of the 1.4 Extender or even using them both together? Thank you

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thank you. I'll be honest.. I didn't even know the camera had that! Something for me to bear in mind.

[@AstrocandyTV]

Good video. I've come to the realisation that I have a strong dislike for British hides. For me bird photography is about the outdoors, roaming about, enjoying the fresh air and what one might find around the next corner or across the next field. Sure, you can open the windows on a hide for a bit of fresh air but it's not the same thing. I'll stick to the outdoors.

[@scooter5193]

Nice one Paul. You got some good shots of the Harrier. Seems very similar to the Northern Harrier from my neck of the woods. How do you find the 500 without the lens hood? I have the same lens and find contrast suffers when I don’t use the hood. All the best, Scott

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Good question. I don't think I've honestly noticed a difference without lens hood - but I'll look out for that.

[@ianpawson1356]

Great video and advice, my 150-600 sigma zoom is never enough but always struggle if I put my 2x converter on

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

That's the problem, sometimes extenders can reduce quality too much. And slow focus down. Sometimes I think it can be better go without and crop the image down.

[@stuartscott3616]

Try far ings nature reserve they come alot closer their

[@ED-on8to]

Hello Paul, you have a Canon EF 500mm F4 L IS I USM lens. Is it true, that these lenses can't execute 12 to 20 FPS from a Canon R6/ R5? What is your opinion on the point that these old lenses are not serviced any more? Best regards, Eike

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

It is a concern, yes. If it breaks down I don't think it will be repaired. my EF lenses give me 7 or 8 FPS on mechanical shutter. Electronic stays the same - 20 on mine

[@ED-on8to]

@@PaulMiguelPhotography Thank you for your answer.

[@JohnW-hm3eg]

So, what is difference of 500mm you use to that of 500mm Reflex? Other than f/4 to that of f/8 , respectively?

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

I think that's a mirror lens? I don't think it really compares for image quality. And background highlights can look odd with those lenses.

[@JohnW-hm3eg]

Ok, I guess. However you don't seem sure in your writing that you have used such, correct??

[@erichaswell6742]

Nice video. I’m sure you could get better photography if the hides were better quality and definitely a better design. I noticed the way you were stooping and contorting your body around due to the poor seating, poor seat height to window height, plus it appears the hide is too far out of the ground. Nice video though.

[@PaulMiguelPhotography]

Thanks. It's all part of the hide experience. Hides for birdwatching and hides for photography are usually quite different.

[@shot2death876]

Camera cannot fcus? Get a different system. Far too much background human buildings there. Nice tips.