You are blessed to live in an area where you see more wildlife in one trip than others do in an entire lifetime.
You seem to enjoy nature photography very much (as do I). May I suggest you go to a nature photography website and see what makes a great picture. The folks here are very nice and it feels good to hear "atta boy", but then you'll always be content with taking snapshots. The Emperor thought he was wearing some pretty cool new clothes too...
Learn to use light better when setting up. You (almost) cannot get a good shot without light, especially with a slow lens.
Anytime you enlarge a photo, you lose detail. You (almost) cannot have a great pic if it is not sharp.
There are so many fun things to learn and, lucky you, will get to see results in no time in your photo-op-rich enviornment.
Good luck and sorry if I offended at all.
Cary