Nice shots Conropl, I never really appreciated my 100-400 until I started shooting humming birds. It is capable of very sharp shots when manually focused---And...Although its a little heavy, Its still my favorite walk around lens. The better beamer is also a very good investment, I think Joel recently mentioned that it is "the best bang for the buck" It really does help a great deal and works very well on the hummers and other birds where distance might be a problem.

Also, I just started writing the intro to my blog so I am hoping to finish and post something this weekend.