For starters, here is a crop of the first "real" image I took with my new lens. This has not been processed in any way except to crop out about 95% of the image.

The new lens really works wonders. The level of detail and sharpness in that image is extraordinary (full image here). And as if on cue, today a whole bunch of rare (for around here) birds made themselves seen in my backyard. There were hairy woodpeckers, evening grosbeaks, mourning doves, and a new species I had not seen before: Red Crossbills. As a bonus, I found a butterfly that was so focused on eating from my lilac bushes that it would let me get my macro lens to within 10 cm. I think I took about 100 pictures of that thing.