Very nice~!
The second Circaete Jean-le-blanc and the two Beekeepers photo are very nice. Did you do much manipulation with cropping or LR/Ps or a similar program? I assume so, since wildlife photography is very hard to frame perfectly in camera, but curious how much manipulation was needed to get them so wonderful.
yes most photos are cropped a bit (it is rather difficult to get a bird to fill the entire frame... ). Regarding photo retouching, I use LR but aside from cropping I don't do much, I mostly adjust lighting and a bit color saturation and that's it. Actually I try to keep it as minimal as possible.
I'm with you 100% on both counts. My wife and I love birds and I know first hand how difficult it can be to get a really nice shot in camera. In the old days you wanted to do all composition in the camera, but those days are LONG gone and especially with birds it's impossible to get all the elements of a great shot. Sometimes you have to machine-gun the subject and hope for the best.
Anyway, you know your craft much better than I do and I'm very pleased you've shared with us all here.
And minimal is really where it's at. The garish over-saturated filter obsessed Instagram pictures we see make me feel like a kid from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Just too damn sweet! Yuck.
Anyway, that's the taste people have, so be it.
Once again, great work and hope to see more!