help picking telephoto lens

Hi I'm headed to College in Alberta and I was wondering is there a good lens from 250mm up that would work for birds, wild animals. I have a good lens that goes up to 250 and I was thinking something in the 400mm to 500mm range. I would like a fast lens that would cost under $1000.00 It's for a Nikon D300.

Get a used 80-400mm. The AF is slow, but it's sharp and will become a 120-600mm on the D300. Tokina used to make a sharp 80-400 and Tamron has a pretty good lens in that range as well.

I agree with Dave. You could also pick up a Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 HSM and a 2x teleconverter but the images probably won't be as sharp at 400mm.

Dave has the right idea. You're not going to get immensely "fast" for under $1000, used or otherwise, but the 80-400 has been good to me.