Hoping to finally develop more skills

Hello everyone!  Will probably write a novel here..
I usually only lurk on forums without posting, have bad experience with forums in general plus photographers who know what they are doing are just intimidating! 

Anyway, I thought I should force myself to interact with people to enhance my chances of actually learning more.  I also only really have one other person near me that shares this interest, so getting more engaged with others would be helpful to keep my motivation up for longer.
Anyway, I got my first DSLR over 10 years ago. A Nikon D3000 with the 18-55mm kit lens. I had decided I would really learn photography now, unlike every other thing I take an interest in that fades after a couple of weeks. At the time I wasn't aware of just how much money this hobby will eat up! The dream was a good macro lens, and a good telephoto lens. But the prices!!!
My interest has always been wildlife and macro (nature-oriented, love bugs!) and the occasional landscape when the opportunity arises.
I usually use my camera on a regular basis every spring/summer/fall, wintertime I rarely go outside if i don't have to. Hard to get around with all the snow too. But every year I keep thinking I want to shoot bullfinches against the snow and frost when they come out of the deep woods for food. Maybe this coming winter I will actually get to it..?
A few years ago I upgraded to a D5200. Absolutely loved the revolving monitor. Made macros so much easier! I found image quality to be nice on it at first but these days I just feel like it's always producing noise no matter what. But it's surely me. I have a tendency to shoot at too slow shutter speed because I have always been terrified of raising ISO as I am allergic to noise in most cases. But I have beat it into my head this last week, that I should not be afraid of it, by googling it! Learned that high ISO doesn't need to equal lots of noise, and saw examples where iso 1600 had less noise than iso 400. Eye opener! 
Despite being into this for the last 10+ years I feel like I know very little. I understand a lot of things but fail to apply them. I've gotten a lot of motivation this last week or two to learn a few new things. Just out of the blue I started looking for a telephoto lens, something I've always wanted but always thought was too expensive, and ended up ordering the Sigma 150-600 this week. Maybe I can finally get those little birds that won't let me near!?
And this last week I also got it into my head that I want a new camera body, and ran into the D500. Looked up info on it, lots of it. And now I need it. No, I don't NEED it, my head tells me that it's way too much money to put on myself, I am not good enough and it's just a hobby. I should settle for D7500 instead. But my heart is screaming that I want the D500. 

 Cost is not really a problem but I am still trying to justify getting it for myself. But we'll see what I'll do. 

Anyway that is a bit of my background and looking forward to learning more with all you guys!
Here I will share my favourite subject to photograph, that I unfortunately had to have put down very suddenly last September. Always beautiful photos of this guy. <3

This is the best place to learn and hone your skills in photography. welcome to the site! 

Cute cat! Welcome to the site! 

Nice to have you here with us! 

Yeah! Nice cat! Welcome to the site!