Sweet Songs

This bird has taken to this electrical pole the last couple afternoons. It has the most incredible song! It is all manner of clicking and chirping and reedy-whistles. When this bird sings, it sounds like there might be 15 birds all at once! From sparrows to hawks to jays. I thought it might be a catbird or a mockingbird, but the coloration is so different.

On a similar note, my 70-300mm lens isn't very great. I mean, it functions, but the image isn't very crisp (this is cropped in, of course, but I still feel it should be clearer). Are there any decently priced long lenses out there (for Nikon)?