Moorhen

I baited this moorhen at Heaton Park so that I could catch it as well as photograph it. The bird had fishing line around its right foot. Unfortunately I was not successful in catching it. The bird as imaged is walking up a steep bank which makes its gait appear awkward. The grey background is an ice frozen lake. I was photographing from the prone position with my lens up against a wrought iron fence which made tracking a bit problematic.

Another 2010 image
Canon 40D
Canon 100-400 @ 400mm
ISO 400
f7.1
1/640
Processed with elements 2, 25% crop, levels and sharpening applied.

Many thanks for looking and kind comments.

Adrian:

Its rather late in England right now, you must be a bit of a night owl!

Very unusual gait, as you mentioned. Great shooting angle. I suspect that was quite cold.
Wish the light angle had been just a bit more behind you to give more illumination to the 'dark' side of the face, body. I certainly enjoy having enough of a light angle to give a sense of form from the shadows, but the very bright background makes this one a bit of a challenge for me, at least.

Cheers

Randy

Hi Adrian
Welldone . Small nits coverered. I find these one of the most difficult birds to get right!
John

Excellent image for the theme, Adrian. Love the showing off of the partially webbed funky looking foot.

Nice exposure to keep details in the Moorhen against the light snow. The good eye contact and raised foot provide a lot of interest. Agree that sun angle was a bit off. This looks like one determined bird, too bad you couldn't get the fishing line off its leg.

It's not every day we see a moorhen in the snow, this makes it a nice surprise for the theme! Pretty neat stance here, and thanks for the explanation behind it. Quite a huge foot. The side lighting does provide drama here, for a dramatic event, but I do get the points made about it.

I like the awkward pose, side lighting, sharpness, composition and visible foot. What did you use as bait?
Well done Adrian.

Hi Jim and thanks, the bird was bated with crushed peanuts and sunflower seeds (hearts).

Very well done on the POV Adrian. I do like the raised foot, and the 'half' shadows reminds me of The Beatles album ' With the Beatles' :S3:

TFS

Will