I travelled to the Forest of Dean today, hoping for some interesting birds. Unfortunately it was a bit early for winter birds and a bit late for the summer ones.
But I did catch a few tits. This is the first time I've used my newish 'baby', a 70-400 zoom lens, for bird photography and the light wasn't too good because of still too much leaf cover. But with a bit of luck, post processing tweaking and some delightful birds I did catch a few. The lens was worth every last penny as the detail it can capture is superb. I can't wait for the leaves to drop and lighten up the woodland!
Hope you like! 
Incidently, if you think the pics are a bit big, please let me know and I'll shrink the next lot.
If I was coveting your new lens before, I've got a serious case of severe lens lust now Eccles! 
Super photos, will look forward to seeing even more over the coming months
If that's how it comes out in a poor light then it was worth every penny. They are wonderful pics and as I've said before already way beyond anything I'd get to see if I were there. 
Beautiful! The central one in particular looks like an Audubon painting.
Absolutely made my day to see those chirpy, pretty birds so beautifully captured! You have such a talent, Eccs.
Agree the second looks like a painting - my faovurite is the first, though, for the contrast and unusual colours of the twisty twig behind! I don't know if it's luck (I suspect not 
) but with eccles' pics there always seems to be something beautful to notice in the background once one's eyes look past the main subject.
Thanks all.
The 'painting' effect is a by-product of shooting at higher than normal sensitivity, and a grainy effect results. Applying noise reduction suppresses the grain but does leave the slight smearing effect that makes it look a bit like a painting.
The twisty branch in the background in the bluetit shot was coincidence. I was looking mainly for the nice diffuse background, although only the bluetit landed where I wanted him to. The others wouldn't play so I had to take what I was given.