acorn harvest

the acorns must have ripened overnight - the Blue Jays are pigging out!

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Nice capture and excellent timing Nancy.

Great capture, but way too much noise and their seems to be some saturation issues or lack of.

Not sure what you used to downsize your file but I'm thinking that where the culprid is.

thanks for the critique Blackburnian! I have had way too much of this noise issue, and am at a loss to explain it. In this case, the pose was so good, I felt I'd try to submit it and see if anyone can explain why I'm having this problem.
The original image was very dark, as the bird was in the shade - the actual sky was very deep blue, and the bird's head was almost impossible to see without pp.
I use Photoshop Elements 4.0 and downsize to the required size, as I've always done. I can't seem to get the sharpness others have, and it's really starting to frustrate me.
On the other hand, I'm still hand-holding, but I would think the IS would take care of that.
Lately, I've started working with adjustment layers, as I seem to have more control over contrast when I do that, but maybe the noise is the result of that?
Color me irritated with the whole thing. W e're in the process of moving - maybe I should just put the camera away for awhile and start over when things have settled down. On the plus side, the new house has a woodland setting - previous owners have plastered the place with hummingbird feeders - I'm looking forward to next summer!