Egret In Flight - Repost Of Reworked Image

I posted version 1 of this image a couple of weeks ago. This is an egret photographed near my house at the end of the day. Although I usually prefer environmental backgrounds, in this case I attempted to make the background somewhat painting-like. I was not satisfied with it but needed feedback and so I posted to see what others would say. There was universal agreement that the background needed work but I was pleased to get some positive comments on the overall attempt. Gail Bisson's comment about the BG being Monet-like may have been overly kind but it did inspire me to try again as the basic idea was coming across. Anyway, here is my most recent attempt. Comments appreciated!

Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 600 mm IS II + EX 1.4x III
840mm, ISO 800, f5.6, 1/1000 sec
Neat Image NR on BG, very light Noiseware NR on bird


Attachment 129040

Hi Barry, I went back to check out your first version (which I missed) to compare. What would be ideal IMO is the new bottom part found here with the clean upper two thirds of the first thread. That would strike a nice balance to me. I like the pose of the egret and the light quality of the image.