Ha ha - excellent.

I do 6-10 paid events a year, mostly sporting but some social.

That doesn't indicate any level of proficiency at all

My parents have one (81 and 75 yrs old) and since they have zero technical ability, and computers and tablets remain as alien as hieroglyphics, they are delighted with the one I bought them as they can use it to show their friends photos they took, on something larger than the 1.5' screen on the back of their ancient P&S, just by popping the SD card in it !

iPad - iTunes on your PC and a folder on the PC for pics to be transfered to the iPad. just add pics to the iPad as required via iTunes. Thee are even apps to sort files (pics into new folders if you so desire).

The man has spoken (Cabstar)

Had it been me every shot would have been with flash though (it seems like both the club and band permitted it) as the conditions look really really tough and although not as natural your shots would have been clean and sharp and knowing that you could have turned your attention to composition and distractions without the worry of your camera settings and perpetual chimping (if you are like me).

Neil, don't feel too bad about missing shots of birds flying straight at you .. there are very few cameras (mostly all top pro models such as 1Dx or D3s/D4 that have the best AF motors around) that can get a high % of those shots in focus .... they are very difficult for the AF motor in consumer/prosumer cameras and probably burst mode (or if you know the direction the bird will take in advance then pre-focusing in MF & burst-mode) is your best chance.

You are spot on re. cross focus points being arge on the K5 series, this is a perpetual gripe amongst some users, it has it's pros and cons but for very small/tiny objects it's definitely not a pro ! If the dragonfly is hovering and you are almost in focus use MF to get it sharp (of course you must have re-mapped your AF to the AF-S button to do this otherwise subsequently depressing the shutter button will set off the AF again) !

Jalal - I think you are better off shooting in TAv mode. Let the ISO float up to whatever you are happy with as a max (I used 1,600 on the K5). Pigeons are very fast flyers and you'd normally need more than 1/800 to catch them sharp, try 1/1600 to start with perhaps.

I too love the red squirrel ! Pretty rare nowadays in the UK aren't they ?

Alan - I tried the Q with the DA*300 (no sighting scope) and found that in practice it was impractical for my type of bird photography (just far too slow to set up, acquire and shoot - must be on a time or remote) however if used in a hide and pre-focused on a known perch (e.g. kingfishers) then it could be useful.

I'm not sure it's neglect so much as a different priority Smeggy.

Pentax don't have long or fast sports/wildlife/bird lenses so, as the famous (or infamous) tests carried out by that French magazine showed, they seem to prioritise reliable focusing over speed of focusing.

In that test Pentax came out ahead of all other manufacturers in % of shots actually in focus (it was a high % but I can't remember or find that link - maybe someone else can), it was in the 90%+ I believe. Maybe this is the micro-focusing we often hear from Pentax lenses (I found the Sigma's HSM faster and without the micro-focusing) which also detracts from the locked-on focus speed.

Ouch ! Nothing else that I can suggest then other than the obvious.