Pentax gear of note this year so far:
Pentax Q-08 (wide angle zoom)
smc Pentax-FA* 85mm F1.4
smc Pentax FA 135mm F2.8
Pentax k3 Prestige Edition (thanks to forum member marantha)

That feels about right.
Radipole Lake and the adjacent park were a frequent haunt for us from the mid 60's. By the time I had my first SLR in the mid 70's I am pretty sure it was a designated reserve

Spent many happy hours at Radipole Lake ( long before it was a reserve)
Good set of bird images. Personal favourite is number 1, lovely portrait and for me swans are synonymous with the lake.
Thank you for jogging a few distant memories

Lovely rich tones and good composition, really like this set

Have to agree, number 3 is the standout image for me

Really nice set of images. The monochrome treatment has worked really well. Personal favourite is image 1, apart from a few modern trappings it has the look of a 1940's photo.

As ever I am in awe of your astro work, please keep sharing

I have a couple of Irix lenses and they are all manual focus

Sorry about the delay in replying

Shift lenses allow you to change the perspective of an image, like eliminating converging vertical of horizontal lines in architectural images. Before you say it, yes you can do these things in post with most decent software, however, when you do that it results in a crop of the image which may well ruin the view / effect you were looking for.

Most large format or field cameras allow you to tilt and shift the lens.

You can use a shift lens in landscape to create a multi shot panorama without the need to change the cameras angle of view, just move the lens in relation to the focal plane.

It is just one of those quirky lenses that has always fascinated me. I did have the Samyang (15mm?) tilt / shift for a while but other than play I didn't really use it. The Pentax is a more useful focal length for me (28mm) and like a lot of their lenses from the early days of K mount is just beautifully engineered

Yet more photographic marvels for you to experience then

Pictures below show my Pentax Shift lens in all its glory (including at full shift) - Much less confusing than Astro!