Room for one more?

[Dorian Anderson]

Irked by my presence as I commuted past the family en route the Red-necked Phalaropes a few weeks ago, this adult Black-necked Stilt crouched down to shelter the chicks (2 under the bird
and a third scampering in that direction). My rig was assembled, so I cracked off a few frames before continuing onto my primary targets. I could have stuck around and tried to get a frame
with better eye contact from the young, but I didn't want to stress the family more than I had.

I just like the behavioral aspect of this frame......

Canon 600mm f/4 IS II on EOS 1DX2
1/2000 at f/5.6, ISO 800
Processed in LR CC - I did clone out the edge of an ugly brown stump which intersected the left-hand edge of the frame. Hella easy fix in the smooth surrounds.

187400

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice and clean presentation. I love the sheen on the plumage. Cool to see the extra little legs gathered underneath the adult. Yes, a better head turn from the trailing little guy would have been excellent.

[David Roach]

Besides the very cool interaction, the low angle and very still water put this over the top for me. TFS

[Brian Sump]

Dorian, really cool shot. I just noticed the other pair of legs lol.... after looking 3x.

Water and reflections are killer. Super cute, tfs.

[Aditya Sridhar]

Really neat behaviour! The reflection is super cool. The rocks are slightly unfortunate, but they don't really take away from what is an excellent (and adorable!) frame.

[John Mack]

Yes to nice behavior. The reflection is great. Also like the title. I could see it cropped from the right a little.

[William Dickson]

Loving this....what a great scene...the reflection it perfect...I can't see how you could make this more pleasing to the eye.

Well done

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Wow! This image did better than I thought it would! I wasn't sure how people would like the composition and unavoidable strip of mud, so I'm glad to read the kind comments. Cheers!