Savannah Sparrow (and my rekindled love affair with my 100-400)

I am still patiently waiting for the return of my 500mm but am having a ball with my 100-400mm in the meantime. Not great for flight shots though as it is slow to acquire focus compared to the 500mm.
It forces me to be patient and the freedom to move around quickly is wonderful.
Taken this AM at Big Glace Bay Beach, cloudy overcast day
Canon 1D MKIV
F 5.6 100-400
Manual, HH
ISO 1600
F 5.6
SS 1/1600
Pretty much straight out of the box using DPP ( for NR as per Arash' guide)and CS5 to clone out an OOF branch between the last 2 branches on right.
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

Excellent! Only thing I'd change if the photo were mine: I'd take down the overall contrast about 5 pts. Very nice, Gail. The zoomer agrees with you!

I'm not a fan of "high-key" images but I like this one with the calling pose and very nice composition.

Unlike the good Dr Hazeghi, I am a great fan of high-key images, and think this one is better than most!

Love the comp, grasses and calling pose. High key works nicely here.

Really nice comp, the grasses are nice, I think there is a green caste on the bird though.
IQ and focus are very good.

Gail - this works very well. I like the high key treatment, the comp, the pose and the grasses. The 100-400 is great for travel too.

TFS,
Rachel

Hi Gail, well placed in the frame, and I like the look back pose with the open beak. Sharp detail throughout the image, and I feel the high key looks great.

great looking image,well sharp,nice pose and composition.well done.

Magnificent image.Beautiful composition.Love the calling pose of nice looking Sparrow,lights and details.

Lovely pose great colours super setting, the zoom does deliver.
I have a love hate relationship with mine, the zoom keeps going sticky and now the IS has packed up. I never understand how these lenses deliver because when bench tested on a target and compared to the 500mm they look to be very poor performers indeed. I appreciate the lenses are chalk and cheese but the fact remains they do deliver the goods.

I like this alot and am glad you left it a large environment without cropping. I really like all the reeds.