Willet - head on

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Left the lab a bit early today and on an impulse drove 2 hours to Orlando, and then another hour to Merritt Island. The tide was high so there wasn't much going on in the water, but there seemed to be Willets flying everywhere. With the sun and wind at my back I got quite a few opportunities of these guys hovering around.

Shooting Info:
Nikon D800 | 500 f/4 VR +1.4xiii
1/2000" | f/7.1 | ISO 500

[Mike Milicia]

Nice comp and I like the green at the bottom.

I'm seeing a bit of a green cast.

[PhilCook]

Great shot coming front one....I have a whole collection of birds in flight with the opposite end lol Also like the greener band at the bottom of the backdrop as it helps break up would otherwise be too plain

[David Salem]

Nice job catching this incoming Willet. Looks sharp enough but maybe could use some more color saturation or contrast to bive it a little more pop. Wish for a better HA as it gets lost a bit in the body. I like the two tone BG too. Well done

[Lyle Gruby]

Great job catching him head-on. Straight-on flight shots are very difficult for me to get. Agree with David and Mike's points. Only improvement would be the beak not intersecting with the body.

[Arthur Morris]

Good work but for the beak being a bit lost as mentioned. Were there any that were hovering mad at you?

[arash_hazeghi]

great sharp incoming shot, this is a tough one. you did well

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Artie, I didn't get any of them coming mad at me, but I did get some open beak ones flying parallel to me. They were pretty loud at times calling at each other. I'll be posting one of those soon.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Miguel. When they are flying at you they are usually mad but you may have been far enough from the nests as to not require any of their usual dive bombing. Been there, done that.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Gotcha Artie. I didn't get any dive bombing. They would fly at each other a lot, and squawk quite a bit - but this was something you could see and hear from quite a ways away. It was interesting to watch, and I was lucky enough to be close to the action for some of it. Wish I would have gotten some flight interaction shots, but didn't get that opportunity.