Which wader is this?

Hi Mick...welcome to the forum....its a great hobby to have...photographing wildlife...although can end up being an expensive one lol
Looks like a Black Tailed Godwit to me but then am no an expert so probably best wait for one of them to arrive and confirm your Godwit ;-)

If you shoot dslr rather than mirrorless, look at the 2nd hand market. The introduction of mirrorless had driven down dslr 2nd hand prices quite a lot over the last year

Yes, thanks, second hand is all I would consider. Still a bit eye watering for a stabilised, fast long lens. My full frame DSLR is now selling for less than half of what I paid used 4 years ago, I wish the lenses were following suit!

Ahh, but you can use the lenses still when you upgrade your camera body, so they could do donkeys years of service, and over the years, the price per picture wouldn't be that high.... that's how I justify it anyway lol

I like your thinking, A few more beers and I could throw caution to the wind!