That's better Jackie, possibly take the grass a bit darker and it needs a bit of sharpening even to look at.

Which one is called "Bombay" and which is "Peking"

Tried all kinds including a lot of Bill Oddie stuff. We have a local discount store called B&M and most people rate their stuff quite well. If I leave any on the ground it all goes quickly, which doesn't happen with the Bill Oddie stuff.

Next door but one have about 12 feeders and they haven't seen much other then sparrows this year. Last year there were some blue-tits nesting in the eves of the houses opposite, but not this year.

It's probably other birds that are close by that frighten them off lots of magpies, ravens, wood pigeons and the odd sparrowhawk plus were quite high up.

I really like the creamy bokeh and colour on the Takumar one. No one seems to realize but the 50mm f/1.4's did vary quite a bit. I used to know a camera dealer who sent about 10 back before he got one he considered acceptable. I think he'd got to used to seeing how sharp Yashica lenses were and thought Pentax should be the same Pity the Yashica colours are so bad

Just received a lens clamp from China took 5 weeks I've had stuff before that's arrived in days. This was signed for though so maybe the Customs and Circumcise held it up to check what it was worth..... all of 10 quid

I've had feeders set up for years. Last year a few blue tits and robins came to them but this year I've only seen sparrows and they are greedy little bastards I did get some decent video footage of them about two years ago, quite funny the way they fight for the feeders

I get blackbirds almost knocking at the door for currants and raisins but the light isn't good enough to photograph them. There's a hedge that stops the sunlight and I'm shooting almost into the sun. I can't think of a worse lighting situation for blackbirds, maybe oneday an albino blackbird will come along I've seen two blackbirds with broken top beaks this year, no idea what caused it. The back gardens always in the shade.

I'm not a big fan of PPing and my main computers down at present, but I thought I'd have a quick go with an old version of Corel Photopaint that's on this old computer I'm using.

I've gone over the top a bit just to show what direction you should go in. Just basically twiddled a few knobs to make it look better.

I couldn't make my mind up if you should make it look like it's a bit nearer to sunset so I've included both versions, neither of which is intended to be a final product. That would need the original image file anyway.

Some nice sharp shots there, I rarely see anything other than sparrows and blackbirds around where I live, so I don't bother trying to photograph them. I can get 520mm with my Pentax A* 300mm f/4 and a 1.7x AF adapter, not sure if it would be up to birding though OK for ducks at f/8. I have the Sigma 135-400mm but rarely use it.

Jackie it's a perfect illustrative shot of a female mallard and would look good in a book about the different types of ducks It would also be handy for an artist doing an illustration... no need to bin it.

Why not sell it to National Geographic much better than the one they are using here The lighting isn't flat on that one, which means you can't see the ducks features. On yours you can see all the features clearly and what the duck looks like standing and sitting down all on the one photo.
Mallards rarely make interesting photos anyway, they are probably best taken in the late afternoon when the sun has gone a bit red, which gives them a better tone.

Thanks for that information pentaxanne, you've certainly had plenty of experience with these lenses and that counts for more than all the marketing hype and MTF tests, I had heard before that the 150-500mm wasn't a very good buy. Seems to be the same with most things these days never as good as the items that they replace..... I've just bought a new TV and hard drive recorder and the old stuff was way better. I can't believe Panasonic have removed the delete button from the handset and I have to go to the second level of a menu to delete a recorded program.... great if you have to delete about half a dozen

I prefer the colour one, although the selective is also nice.