Starting with a D7000, advice for a budding wildlife photographer

Hey all. Happy new year. I'm new to this forum. I'd appreciate any help given and your time taken!

I'm a budding wildlife photographer with a love for macro closeups, telephoto closeups of flying animals and landscapes. Occasionally I do Gothic and architectural buildings [lots of light and sky with reflections].

I also love taking high-speed photos like dropping water, waterfalls, rain etc. I might use the camera for piecemeal photography shooting for real estate, but that's a sideline.

I'm after a camera that can survive the elements, a fall, has good access to lenses [i'll be looking at the Nikkor 70-300 lens as well as the standard bundled lens. I'll be looking to get a decent Polariser and UV lens for protection.

I'm using a CoolPix L120 and I'm now looking for a camera to play around with. I'm from the old school family of SLR cameras but its been a while since my Ricoh days. I've got a 8GB card that still has a SHED load of space taking pics from the L120 at max ISO.

Being a musician I know that buying UP at the mid-range is better testing one's limits to the full and can be challenging. In appreciate, a decent camera to get to the next level can create a style [as with music] that will last for life and the next stages in becoming a semi-pro.

I've seen reviews of the D7000 and it ticks many boxes. For me the D5100 and D7000 seems favored by the entry to the semi pros for wildlife photography. I see the reviews of the d7000 have given it 80%. Should I be expecting a higher mark for my bucks?

I'm hoping to obviously get lenses and filters at competitive prices. Should I be looking elsewhere or is the D7000 answering all my queries?