Is that yellow I see on the goldfinch's wings? They're beginning to develop breeding color! A very good sign of spring. Today the temperature went into the mid-fifties and I actually heard the red-wing songs (some people say "O-ca-ree", I hear "Skreeee"). A few red-wing males have been here for about a month but without a peep until today. Two grackles also appeared today and I heard their soft chit-chit calls; no creaking sounds yet. I'm sure they will all shut up as soon as it gets cold again, as it will, but the trend is definitely toward spring. Halleluja! Claire

Do you already have glass from a previous system? Check out dpreview.com and look at the camera reviews New releases for entry level DSLRs are: Canon XTi Nikon D80 Olympus E400 Pentax K10D Sony A (EEk!Sony DSLR...)FYI, Konica- Minolta sold its camera division to Sony. There is devenitely rooom for imrovment and and I think they will attemp to make those improvements. All of above mentioned are 10MP and brand new so prices will be high for them. Lens _availability_ advantages go to Canon, Nikon and Pentax with Olympus in 4th place, however, Olympus makes some of the best lenses out there for a good price. They all have there advantages and disadvantages. Olympus iinroduced a new system called 4/3rds and most of the lens releases have been HQ and Very HQ since the first DSLR they released was "Pro" camera, but now Sigma is joining in on the concept so there are now lower priced lenes available. You can use the old OM mount lens but you have to get an adaptor, there cheap on ebay($16). I have the Canon Rebel XT but it sits on the shelf, it a great camera and but its shines in low light situations, high ISO. I am not usually shooting picture in the dark and my other Olympus DSLR make great pictures with the KIT LENSES! The kit lens with the Canon was crap, I ended up buying a new lens becuase it was so cheaply made, actually my wife bought it I just supplied the $$. I test drove the D50 for a few days and it had a serious banding issue. Again they are all good brands it just depends on which one you like the best. Prices for last years model will be dropping soon. If you have a Sams card go over there and look at the E500. Joe

Great photos Joan. I'm envious. Both shots are great. I haven't quite gotten the sharpness consistently I'd like with my latest gear. Don't know if I'm just not in the lenses' comfort zones too often, or out of the photog's competency zone! Probably more often the latter.

Note that the lens spec is 6.0 to 60 mm; f/2.8 to f/4.3. The zoom range is 10X as indicated by the 6 to 60 mm range. An important figure is the lens opening: f/2.8 to f/4.3. These are great numbers. This means at the widest angle (6.0mm) the f-stop is 2.8 and racked all the way out to maximun zoom, the f-stop is 4.8. Many zoom lenses would fall to smaller openings such as f/5.8 at maximum zoom. However, check out the wide angle. You may find it not wide enough for other uses such as group shots in confined spaces, or including eveything in a wide shot. Canon in designing this lens apparently favored the long side of the zoom range. A tripod will be needed for zooms greater than 2X although a very steady hand in good lighting can get shots up to 4X zoom. Beyond that, it is very difficult to prevent blurring without a stablization aid. You mentioned taking shots of birds approximately 45 ft away. Getting a sharp focus will be the challange. I suspect that you intend to shoot from indoors through glass. It would be best if you could shoot from a blind without any glass in front of the camera. However, if this is not practical for you, there are some things you can do to minimize the extra pane of glass in front of the camera. If you house is like others with installed storm windows, raise the lower storm and acreen to remove this impediment, and shot through only one pane of glass. That piece of glass msut be flat and free of defects. If you have thermal pane windows with a double pane of glass, the internal reflections will degrade the image. Seek another location. There may be times when you will be tempted to turn on the flash. It won't work behind a pane of glass. The reflection off the glass will wash out the exposure and will not illuminate the scene very well.