I have no leach storied but this shot:
http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/111621830

Took a light touch and infinite patients as I got through the thicket which was loaded with biting things. The mirgrant workers also live here as I discovered so I had to tread carefully. By the time I was done shooting here, I literally had mosquito bites from the top of my head to my ankles. Yeah they bit through my clothes too. I was itching for a week. Only place they couldn't get was through my shoes. Shot was worth it though but I don't go to that place too often.

I did pull it off hearty but couldn't stop the bleeding, and instead of salt I've used sweat.

Gentoo ! Nice set and beautiful outcome! .. I have not had many successes maybe a half a success if yours is the bench mark! But yes so much fun stalking and watching the behavior.. as they say the journey is also part of the fun!

NSXTYPE ! Birding is full of failures.. you just have to keep at it. and hone your technique. On a D40 I would use the center point only.. when I was using my D70 that's what I used even now with my S5pro Most of the time I use the center one only. With the 18-135.. I would practice on the tamer bigger birds. They are not as easy as it seems and just as much fun! with a shorter lens!

Leaches.. ! hate them.. How come so much blood? The times I have been "leached" I never bled much.. Did you pull it off ?? best to put cigarette ash on it or salt then it will drop off by it self and you wont bleed much at all.

Adamz, good lord man! I don't do jungles. Don't like heat and humidity. I'm often in the other extreme; sometimes out in cool cloudy drizzly weather as I chase down gulls and waterfowl. Certain ducks love that kind of weather.

NSXT: I've birded with the D40 and the 55-200mm lens. I was in a place where the birds are pretty tame most of the time as 1. 200mm is a bit short for true birding and 2. There's no way that lens was up to the job. I have virtually no pictures of small birds with that kit. Just the herons, gull, and certain waterfowl, birds that don't move much. The only songbird pics I was able to get were the tame city birds feeding patiently on seed or bread.

I got a little better luck when I got the 70-300. Then I put that lens on the D300 and it improved a bit more. It wasn't till I got the prime that I was able to get shots like the above. Lake Murray is a city park lake in San Diego but there are a lot of wilder species there in the surrounding scrub. These include rattlesnakes and bees and ticks and other things. It's best to stay on the trails. Whatever I'm a birder, we don't do that. Most of the time for gulls and waterfowl they just happen to be where the people are but for the cool stuff, you gotta go where no normal people would ever go lol.

Well one danger is getting eaten by your model :D

Holy crap Adamz, that's scary!

I got a taste of what birding is with the 18-135. Never doing that again with the D40. Not fast enough lens, bad autofocus sensors (maybe not bad, just not enough sensors and not fast enough), I know my camera wasn't up to snuff. Glad I can do other things with it though. :D

Nice posts gentoo, below my contribution to this thread.

As I was writing in some of the latests threads about Chitwan, below some pictures showing how does it look like to go through the jungle.

There's no visible path to go through, You just go directly through the grass, not seeing the place where Your legs stands.

That's how my trousers looked like, after I got some leeches bites.

Dammit! Disturbed by a passing jogger.

He landed again and turns just how I want him. Perfect!

here is the finished photo:
http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/105479659

It turned sideways but as I got ready to shoot, it turned again.

Almost but not quite where I want it

Here are a few challenges and tips to truly shooting wildlife. Small birds are one of the biggest challenges to capture properly. I should be specific and say that certain groups of birds are harder than other. First of all, park and backyard fed birds isn’t true wildlife shooting. Sure the subjects are wildlife but the technique is very different.

The best birds to test your skills on are not the seed eating finches and sparrows. These birds sit still for a period and allow you to frame a shot a bit easier. Try the small insect eaters such as warblers or in this case, gnatcatchers. These birds are very active and almost never sit still for much more than a half second. Because of this, you need a camera with good AF but more importantly, a good lens that can keep up with the action in a split second. 300mm is the absolute minimum for small birds. The 70-300mm is a great lens within it’s limits. However, this type of shooting is beyond it’s normal limits. It’s focus is not only too slow but is not terribly accurate (compared to a prime). Also at 300mm with an open aperture that you may very well need, it’s pretty soft. This in combination with the slower less accurate focus makes this lens unsuitable for true wildlife shooting. It’s a great lens; it’s just not designed for this type of precise shooting. For this type of work one needs a minimum of a 300mmF4. A 300mm2.8 or better a 400mm2.8 would be best but I cannot afford either of these. These primes focus not only fast but more accurately than a consumer zoom. Why is this important? Because with birds like this you often have to try to anticipate where the bird may land for the split second it does. Focus on that spot and if the bird goes there, fire off the shutter. This is not often the case as the bird frequently lands just outside of your focus area and buy the time you shift to where it is, it has moved on.

Here I fired the shutter a bit soon and the bird had not yet landed.

Once it did, it wasn’t positioned right.