Editing photos from Tanzania has come to a temporary halt - with just over 11,000 photos still to go.

The reason is that a couple of weeks ago, I finally took delivery of a new lens - the Canon RF 200-800 and wanted to try it out. I have read mixed reviews on it's sharpness at the long end and wanted to test it for myself

The morning of Tuesday 30th July, a short trip down the road to Dernford Reservoir - blazing sunshine - problems with heat haze over water a strong possibility - and that proved to be the case.

Loads of photos of common stuff, all but one suffered the delete button. Just one shot of a Mute Swan that I  liked. Not a good test of the lens but not impressed so far.

The next day, a friend and I drove North to Snettishan RSPB - still hot and glary but a sea breeze was helpful. We walked to the far south hide that neither of us had visited since it was rebuilt following the flood. What a disappointment. Fixed windows and low openings for photographers but only fixed seats at the back of the hide - too far back to sit on and take photos. It was plainly built for the many visitors to the high tide roost and no-one else.

A few Egyptian Geese were within range but nothing else worth the bother.

Hardly exciting for me as they were very prominent in Tanzania.

We moved round the hides heading back towards the car and had some success. Little Egrets

and an altercation between a juvenile Black-headed Gull encroaching on the territory of a Common Tern.

Afterwards, the Common Tern put on a flying display that the Red Arrows would have been proud of.

Walking out of the hide, we were surprise to find ourselves next to a flock of Barnacle Geese - totally unexpected - and into the early afternoon sun but worth a shot.

We had heard that the water levels on the freshmarsh at Titchwell had been reduced and there was mud in front of the hide to attract waders so that is where we headed. Another disappointment as there was no mud there at all - water levels still too high - and the only photos worth taking were of a feeding juvenile Redshank.

The  RSPB sites on the Wash never seem to produce much these days - it will be a while before I return.

And the lens - good and bad - still not made up my mind whether to keep it.