It is either a Western Grebe. Very similar to the Clarke's Grebe, but the red eye in the black mask identifies this as a Western.

It is a Green Heron

It is called a Goldenrod Crab Spider, also called a flower spider. This spider lives on flowers, especially goldenrods. They don't build webs, instead they lay in wait inside the flower and ambush any insect that happens to land on the flower.

I compared the Nikkor 28-300mm and the Tamron 28-300mm on my D600 before I bought. I saw no difference in the quality of the images but in terms of weight and cost, the Tamron beat the Nikkor hands down. I also had the Tamron 18-270 for my DX format D60 and was extremely happy with the results.

Here is my attempt at PP. Two minutes with Picasa, a little graduated tint to the upper right hand corner, removed a little saturation to adjust the flesh tone, and then added back a little highlight and shadow.

My try at post

(Download)

I had the same problem, at both Wal-mart and Costco. Both of my younger children, in their teens, needed head shots for college entrance auditions for the drama programs. The kids needed around 25 8x10 B and W matte prints to include in their applications and it was cheaper to have a third party do the printing. I was also told that my pictures were too good not to be professional and that we would need to letter of release from the pro who took the pictures in order to have them printed. I finally took the SDHD card to Wolfe Camera, before they went out of business, and had the prints made there. I no longer have any printing done at either Wal-mart or Costco, and, even though it's more expensive, I now print my own.

The "I don't know" looks like a juvenile robber fly. I've posted an adult for comparison.

Robber Fly

I spent about one minute in Picasa. Added some fill light, boosted the color saturation, and added a sky blue graduated tint to the sky. Very user friendly program with a short learning curve that can handle 75% of PP.

(Download)

I think the first picture is of a black crowned night heron.
The green heron has yellow eyes and the black crowned has red.

The 7100 is definitely an upgrade. The 90 has been a Nikon workhorse for years, but in pretty much every head to head comparison the 7100 wins. Both have a DX format, so if you are really wanting to upgrade, have you considered the 610 with a full frame sensor. Now the only thing that makes the 7100 more attractive is the price.

It is probably a Brown or a Sage Thrasher. They both resemble each other and they are both found on Colorado

If you have Picasa which is a free editing program from Google,you can get the shutter actuation on any picture from the metadata in the properties tab at the bottom right of the editing page.

Looks like it could be a female grackle.

Picture #2 is a leaffooted bug also called a stink bug because of a foul odor they emit if handled roughly. They get their common name from the leaf like structure on their hind legs.

You will want to check out The Strand and Moody Gardens. Both offer excellent photo opportunities. If you are looking for more go to fisherman's wharf for some of the freshest local seafood found anywhere.