Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

You can only marvel at modern cameras and lenses.  This is effectively a 900mm lens shot (due to the crop factor), at ISO 1600 and at 1/100th of a second.  Acuity could be better but I can only marvel at the different technologies that combined to provide an image that I considered worthy of blipping.  

Firstly the camera sensor handled ISO 1600 in it's stride with the noise well controlled and further assisted in post processing.  Then shooting at the ridiculously slow speed of 1/100th of a second despite the focal length.  It has no right to be sharp but the vibration reduction on the lens has done a fantastic job of making up for the inadequacies of the photographer.  And it was hand held!  An exotic lens? No Tamron's new(ish) 150-600mm super zoom.  I think I have a bit of a diamond here, it even coped well with the heron in flight, the AF locking on quickly and staying on the bird throughout it's short flight.  A pity it's such a big lens or it would be going to the U.S. with me.