Hello everyone. My name is Raymond Burton and I'm a new member and convert to birds and bird photography. I'm a Veterinary Surgeon by profession and have spent my entire life so far in the pursuit of reptiles , mainly in Australia , but also SE Asia and Central and South America. I've covered the entire continent of Australia chasing mainly snakes but virtually anything scaly was a target. I've become a bit of a pariah to my herpetology friends after I took an interest in birds but I must admit that the hobby is addictive. I shudder to think of the birds that I've missed on my reptile odysseys when my eyes were scouring the ground and not the trees. Still , my wife is happy that I'm in an infinitely safer hobby now and she won't have to worry that I'm off the grid somewhere tangling with a Taipan or similar. I've come to appreciate the amazing array of adaptations that birds display in their battle for survival and their subtle colours and more gaudy hues make photographing them a joy. I currently use a Canon 5DSR camera body and a Canon 500mm mk2 IS lens almost exclusively and mount them on a Manfrotto monopod. The images that they produce are amazing and the only weak point is the human holding the camera. Even though they are fairly heavy , I can walk for miles with my gear slung over my shoulder in my quest for birds and it gives me a great reason to go bush whenever work permits. I hope to meet you all in person some day or we may even bump into each other somewhere in the wild.