Juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher

[Josh Gahagan]

It's been a long time since I've stopped in at this forum, and I'm really amazed at the quality of images being posted here recently. I figured I would share one of my recent favorites to the mix. This gorgeous bird was captured several weeks ago during an early morning visit to Plum Island in MA. It was nice to capture some decent images of this species because before this encounter, I seemed to have trouble getting close enough for photos. I thought the still pool in front of the bird made for a decent reflection in the gorgeous light.

1D3, 400 f5.6L, 1.4x TC II, 1/1000 @ f9, ISO 1000, handheld, cropped from horizontal, CW rotation

http://i610.photobucket.com/albums/tt184/jgahagan_09/shortbilleddowitcher5_zpscf643cad.jpg (http://s610.photobucket.com/user/jgahagan_09/media/shortbilleddowitcher5_zpscf643cad.jpg.html)

Thanks for looking!

[Rick Bowers]

Great composition, lighting, and reflection!

[Iain Barker]

Great Image, Nice light and reflection.

[Shawn Zierman]

Light quality is soft and pleasing to the eye. Quality reflection. I like the warm colors on the bird contrasting subtly with some of the cooler tones in the water. The darker areas of the water in the fg and the greens in particular in the bg could benefit from a subtle pass of NR imo. One of the sweet little details of the image that stands out are the toes showing on the right foot that is almost lifted out of the water. Always enjoyable to view your quality of work.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the light, pose, reflection and composition. Well done Josh!