These birds are fascinating to watch, especially how they go about hunting their prey. Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, Huntington Beach, CA.

Saw these two Peregrine Falcons enjoying each other's company, so to speak, at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, Palos Verdes, CA. They put on quite a display....brief as it was.

I just received my D500 and took it for a test drive yesterday shooting BIF. It performed admirably and shutter noise was not an issue.

My wife and I visited both cities a few years back. I used a Nikon D80 w/18-200 lens and that worked fine. Both cities are exceptional for photography. I found Prague particularly beautiful. As a recommendation, if time allows, take a half-day city tour to orient yourself to the various attractions, then go back to the places you want to concentrate on.

Excellent picture...

My wife and I were in Vietnam a year ago to date. I found Hanoi's street photography exceptional. I was fascinated by the sheer number of scooters. I'd stand on the corner of my hotel watching the non-stop parade of scooters, sometime 5 people to a scooter. What one puts on a scooter is only limited by his/her imagination, e.g. chickens, dogs, trees, building supplies, etc. Absolutely amazing. Walking the streets can be an issue. Traffic lights are meaningless. Take a moment and see how the locals cross the street. One recommendation is to take a bicycle rickshaw ride. You can sit back and take photos of street scenes to your heart's content. Enjoy.

Here are a few pictures of a northern harrier as it was prowling for a meal at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, Huntington Beach, CA.

Spotted this guy sitting on a branch with a Jerusalem Cricket in his talon. Looks like he's about to have a tasty meal.

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Appreciate the good info you provided. After reading all the good comments to my post, I'm confident my camera will continue for a while keep on clicking. Thanks all.

I too was astounded to see that high shutter count. I'm retired and as part of my exercise program I walk a lot and visit a wetlands preserve. I shoot of a lot of birds, practice in my backyard, travel overseas and take a ton of pics, used the time-lapse, etc. However, I still can't account for all those pics. I'm taking an extended trip in the near future and I'd hate to be in the middle of it and have my camera go belly-up. Appreciate your comments.

Hi Al, thanks for the encouragement....

I recently read an article on a camera's shutter life or durability. I had never given any thought to a camera's shutter life, just assumed the shutter would continue to function as long as I had the camera. In that article, it was mentioned that you wouldn't buy a used car without knowing the milage, and you wouldn't buy a used camera without knowing the shutter count. So, looking up my Nikon D7200's estimated shutter life, I see its factory rated at 150,000 cycles. Curious, I used the website: https://www.camerashuttercount.com to see how many times I've snapped the shutter. Come to find out, I've taken over 380,000 photos within a 2 year period. That count seemed unbelievably high. I used two other shutter count websites and found the same count. According to another website I am way over my shutter's life expectancy: http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/ Anyone else have similar results? Was I just lucky to get that many shots? Does this mean I really ought to give more consideration to buying that D500 I've been eyeing? Thanks.

I own a Nikon D7200 and exclusively used BBF. Just a word of caution though. My wife and I love to travel and often we find ourselves in front of some famous landmark and often we have our picture taken in front of that landmark. Giving my camera to a fellow traveller or trip leader, I have on occasion forgot to mention that I use BBF and, of course, they just assume the shutter button will automatically focus the photo. Because I failed to mention I use BBF (and specifically point out what button to press) we've had a few photos out of focus. It's the little things that can save some disappointment....