HELLO,CAN ANYONE ADVISE PLEASE?

Hello everyone!
I am totally new to photography and online forums so please do excuse any clumsiness on my behalf!
I am in the fortunate position of having been able to have bought a canon 600d with the 18-55 kit lens,wow!,a bit of a leap up from my trusty but very dusty ixus!
I have also bought through ebay a selection of lenses that I thought should cover most situations/circumstanc​es/events...etc
I am waitng for a date to start a course in basic digital photography,so hopefully after then I should be relativly clued up to know what to use and when and why!
I have the 18-55 kit lens,
a canon 50mm-f1.8 ef-s,
a canon 70-300 ef
and a Tamron 70-200,which I find best all-rounder
i have a 430ex-mk2 with off camera triggers
Could anyone please advise me as to which lens and settings I should use for taking images of the somerset murmurations?
and also what canon lens would best to buy that would be good to use as an allrounder?
My Tamron 70-200 is great,but its slow to shift/focus from macro to telephoto and if Im using 'live-view' mode its hellishly slow to focus!
I've done a little bit of long exposurelight painting with laser pointers torches and L.E.D.s,that was fun but I really want to take pictures of the birds in flight!
any pointers tips help would be very welcome cheers!
FAT-MATT

Greetings, and welcome to the forum!

As to your question, well, to getting good "Birds In Flight" photos, well, there is a lot of "craft" in there, but also some spending in there as well. I don't know about non-Canon lenses, but the Canon variety are, well, spendy. Spend some time here in the forum, and you should get an idea -- here's a thread to check out:

https://photography-on-the.net …ight=best+birds​+in+flight

BFM,
Welcome to the forum. As for the best lens for the Somerset Murmurations, depends on what you want and where the damn starlings decide to roost. We were there a few weeks ago and they came in too close to where we were standing (the main stand where the RSPB set up). I was there with things from 24-500mm and I would guess that the best combination is with a 70-200/300mm and the birds being a few hundred yards away. I admit to not being the best but I think it will take a few trips to get what you want, you will undoubtedly learn lots in teh process. As for slow focussing you can always try manually or prefocus on where the birds are. Good luck and post something - you will get helpful comments!

John