John, what you aptly describe is the experience of an opportunistic wildlife photographer ........I have similar stories to tell whereby I get a Pileated woodpecker or a Copper's hawk family in my backyard, and they are usually gone by the time I put the camera/lens together.
Thanks Peter, but just a lucky break. A family of four chasing ants and each other around for a few days. Heard them loudly every day, but only showed themselves rarely. Species, other than the most common, seem to come and go with no discernible reason.
Didn't have a very good shoot this morning. There was a fairly strong wind on the lake, and it blew in the wrong direction, thus it accelerated the flying birds in my shooting direction to the point where I could barely track them. In addition, the 1DMkIIN mirror seems to have hung up on me in a transient fashion, it's OK now, but that doesn't augur well.
No, I do not have 1DX on order because a mere thought of having to plonk $7k on a mass produced 35mm digital SLR camera causes pain.
The inner conflict part stems from the belief that my photography, such as it is, could benefit significantly from the new AF system, and perhaps from 12 FPS on occasion as well.
John_T wrote:
Currently I'm beginning to feel the tug of this, and that gets expensive, hunh Peter?
John, the "sport" doesn't have to be very expensive.....there is always 400 f/5.6 which is a very good BIF lens in good light.
Increasing the FL beyond 400mm obviously lets you get more distant birds, however, such lenses become more awkward in handling and performance, not to mention the price, thus the capture rate starts to deteriorate.
Psych, is that a tern-in-flight or a tern-in-landing shot ?
OK, this is what TIF shots are like.
Handheld (barely ) 1DMkIIN + 400 f/2.8 IS MkI + 1.4xTC MkIII.
Cool lookin' dude, John.....excellent portrait treatment.
When using 100-400 on active wildlife, I think you are better off with a superior AF system of 5DMkIII than with a prodigeous cropping power of 7D.
IMO our keepers hinge most often on accurate focusing, and very seldom on croppability.
Good show, Psych......the framing on #1 is excellent and the last one ain't an easy shot.
I've continued my masochistic phase with handheld 1DsMkII + 400 f/2.8 IS MkI (bare).
I love that lens, but it does need a pod, however, I can't shoot BIF off a pod....there you have it.
........I have similar stories to tell whereby I get a Pileated woodpecker or a Copper's hawk family in my backyard, and they are usually gone by the time I put the camera/lens together. 
