shots from my yard

Cropping in too much will obviously result in shots that look unsharp.

Maybe drop the tripod ... go to handheld ... up the ISO to about 400 and shoot with shutter priority (up around 1/800th or more if you can) on auto focus for a few shots and see what happens. Using these settings it should be possible to get sharp shots fairly easily.

Do you get sharp results if you shoot something easy like a cup on an outdoor table in good light?

I think, from what I can see, it is a combination, (as you have said MA), of slow shutter and cropping too much. Though I mostly suspect the cropping.
Could you post a couple uncropped just for us to see. Don't need to see the subject largely, just an uncropped version of any of these shots.
As for getting crisp clear shots. Yes he can, see link below. This is also an indication of why I think it is mostly heavy crop prob's.
http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f11...lect-8628.html

yeah they are heavily cropped. it seems when i view the "target" at 300mm it is very close, but when viewed on my computer the image is not so close due to sensor size ( maybe?) The osprey is about 60 feet away and maybe 30ft up a tree. Time of day is usually when the sun is coming from the southwest casting a shadow on the subject as the osprey hunts from a perch on a crescent shaped island we have.

Very nice shots indeed!

I'm with MA here, first thing to check is shutterspeed and I too recommend 1/800 or faster, though cropping may well be adding to softness here.

If possible, always try to focus on the eye even manually if possible...that way we know who is responsible for the focus. The camera often gets it wrong on a general AF mode. You eye, will never get it wrong if your vision and focus are good and there's enough light to easily focus with. AF has a piddly little brain compared to ours and it works on contrast alone AFAIK. It has no idea if it's looking at a bird or a building, so using it improperly is a sure way to miss many shots. :twocents:

I was second guessing myself after the softness comments. It is because of cropping. I am saving for a lens extender and we'll see what happens.