A professional bird photographer would be extremely happy with a those shots Trevor! let alone for an early attempt
wow! that was taken hand held with a non IS cheap 300 mm zoom GOOD GRIEF! what are the good IS zooms like ffs! Nice big 8mb chip - will print at highest res extremly well, if these are full frame, A4 edge to edge and beyond! champion stuff mate
Kearn
PS those bird books can sometimes be tricky with local regional variations in species and all the juvenile stages we have found (we have "field guide to the birds of Australia" and that page you mention Paul is now pg 119) you need at least two or three books to cover the lot maybe