They get pretty erratic around the feeder competing with the other riff-raff these days, but this pair were finally relaxed and settled in long enough for me to keep practicing with this Canon 90D, it's a very unforgiving sensor .
I like #1 the best. I think I would have raised the aperture to about 8 to 11 to get all of the birds in focus and lowered the exposure down a bit. I agree that they are a bit noisy.
I agree with K regarding the noise. I see you have 'OK to Edit' so I added a little NR to the last one for reference. Hope you don't mind.
Thanks all! Absolutely right about the noise. Thanks for the NR edit Space Face, way better than mine. I do appreciate and love the feedback and tips. By way of explanation and not making excuses: I was pushing the limits of the 100-400L lens with the 1.4x TC which adds its own level of noise. I have a feeling that I could've easily shot without the TC and cropped as tight much cleaner but I was practicing more than anything and happy to get some good results. Where I'm struggling for these shots is with the light source and the snow cover really fooling my metering as well as me not paying enough attention to all the details. Plus, I think the monitor on my 2013 MacBook Pro isn't showing me all the noise. I notice the noise and lack of detail on my not-as-old iPad air2. I need the TC for the added reach in challenging conditions which I'll share in subsequent posts.
Try shooting at a higher shutter speed 1000 to 2000 when using the 1.4 TC. Your images will come out a lot sharper. I use a 2X TC with a 150-600mm lens.
