Sitting on Top of the World

Several years back I decided I needed a nice camera, one that was easy to operate and would take good photos. Naturally I would have loved to have a camera that took "exceptionally" good photos but knew my lack of knowledge in the art of photography didn't warrant purchasing a $1,000 piece of equipment.
My husband John, ever the engineer, researched the subject. He read every back issue of Consumer's Report that had tested cameras and we visited every camera shop or department within a 50 mile radius of us. I'm sure he probably even made up some type of spread sheet on the subject. John came to the conclusion that the little Canon PowerShot A70 would be ideally suited for me. Not very complicated, small, and relatively inexpensive. With emphasis on inexpensive !
I have found it indeed suitable for most of my purposes and it seems to take macro shots quite well. However long range shots using the zoom feature leaves a lot to be desired.
For instance a couple of weeks ago I saw one of our local hawks sitting atop the utility pole outside our front yard...it is an incredibly beautiful bird and I rushed inside, got my camera and hurried to capture the moment. Without using the zoom the hawk appeared as little more than a speck at the top of the pole...with the zoom it was still very disappointing...in reality the hawk was definitely much closer than it appears in these photos. Can any one suggest a really good camera, with a good zoom capacity that won't break my pathetic little piggy bank ?

The photo above was taken from my front porch while the photo below was taken several yards closer (both using the Zoom setting) not much difference.

In the following photo I got up as close as possible without having to point the camera straight up...still the distance is too great for my tiny little canon to overcome...or maybe I just don't understand what "zoom" means.