More wildlife in Montana | Nature and Wildlife photos | Photo Forum

Thanks mscharff and Oksana!  I am glad you two liked the flicker–just about everyone picks #6 as their favorite.  For me it is the flicker and the second one of the heron, but I think that is only because it was way harder to get a good shot of him in flight than standing on the ice.  The ice one is nice too though and you can even see his open beak on the shadow behind him. 

Oksana–all these were shot with my D3300 and the 55-300mm lens (mostly at 300mm of course).  Now I am eyeballing that new Nikon 300mm F/4…..

Thanks for the info Mandrake–I knew it was a flicker and I knew it was male (the cheeks), but I didn’t know about the shaftedness differences.  They are striking birds and there are a lot of them around here.  That shot was in my “bird studio” outside my office window! 

Thanks iluqman!  For a while I have been pining for something longer but lately I feel great about how the 55-300 is performing.  With my relatively low-level skills, the equipment cannot be blamed (yet!).