March of the Coots!

[Indranil Sircar]

This week it has been raining here... not much birding! I did get out one afternoon and found this large group of Coots foraging on the new grass. It was interesting to see how they were cautious and marched towards the water with any movement around. For this image, I focused on the middle of the pack and kept both fg and bg oof. Cropped to pano, applied fract and used a layer mask to open up the sharper coots. Hope you like it...

[Andrew McLachlan]

Holy Cootville Indranil! I usually only get to see acouple of these guys around here from time to time - never this many! Love the subtle use of fract here, very nicely done!

[denise ippolito]

Indranil, Very nice pano crop and I like the way they seem to be wandering along. I might evict the one head top left if it were mine(just kidding:t3). I like how the coots in the front are slightly OOF and bring your eye to the center.

[Kerry Perkins]

This is pretty cool Indranil, I like it. Definitely a treat to see so many at once and I like your treatment of the image. Big fun!

[Steve Adkins]

Wonderful march, Indranil! Even the shadows add to the comp.
I'm still chuckling at Denise's comment. :bg3:

[Judy Howle]

That's a great way to capture a "pack" of coots! I like the DOF on the image and the processing is very nice.

I have shot more coots than any other water bird because we have so many and even when I can't find any other water birds on my outings to the Tenn-Tom Waterway I can always find coots! They should be out of the water eating grass soon as it's starting to green up. I'll have to post some of my better images.

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Indranil, great DOF effect here, and those red eyes really pop. We have coots at a lot of our water spots, but never seen so many together. Must be fun when they all chase each other in this large group. :w3