Stiltie in golden sunset

It's no secret around these parts that a very tame stilt sandpiper has been hanging around the local shorebird spot. Oddly enough, he's made a friend with one of the resident lesser yellowlegs, and apart from feeding and resting together, if the yellowlegs flies off somewhere else, the sandpiper always follows him. Ergo, you get a decent number of photobombs from the second bird, but if you manage to herd him away in hopes of getting a better shot, the stilt will just follow along to wherever you've sent the yellowlegs off to. Has anyone seen this behaviour before?

This is one of the few times I managed to get the stilt sandpiper on his own in a nice portrait pose. The water is the Châteauguay river, which drains into the St. Lawrence about 15 miles downstream. Please let me know if the head and eye are to your liking viz. detail and sharpness.

5D mkIV, 500mm f/4 IS, 1.4x TC III, tripod mounted
1/1300 @ f/6.3, ISO 400
DPP/PS

Thanks,
Jake

Edited to put up a better image file

Very nice. That is some sweet light. The bird really pops with the darker water behind him.

The one and only time I photographed a Stilt Sandpiper (my favorite species of shorebird BTW) it was associating with a Lesser Yellowlegs and behaving the way you describe here. Great for side-by-side comparison images. Nice light, and I texture on the water surface. I also like the dark BG.

I like the pose, composition and agree that the bird stands out nicely from the BG. Nice image Jake.

Very nice as noted above. Noe that there are two incoming first winter scapulars, the grey feathers just below the rusty-fringed feathers. As with Dunlin, it is more than rare to see a young stilt without any first-winter feathers coming in.

with love, arite

Very Nice Image. Beautifully Captured.

I do feel that horizon may be slightly tilted (ever so slightly).

Thanks for sharing.

Really pops on that blue background, well done! I am very envious as this is one of only 2-3 North American shorebirds that I am missing in my collection.
I've seen hundreds while birding but never well enough to capture.

A species on my wish list too. Very nicely captured against the dark BG; nice water texture and good pose. Based on the plane of focus in the water, I would agree that a slight CW rotation would help, but no big deal. Did you get any side-by-side shots with the Stiltie and the Yellow-legs? That could make a very useful field guide.

I did a bit of leveling as some have suggested. Thoughts? I think the sandpiper is in fact standing on a bit of flat river bottom (if you look at his feet and the water around them), and the water to his right is sloping down due to the natural course of the river. In any case, I put in a bit of CW rotation to see how it looks. Trying to strike a balance between the water on the right hand side and not having the bird tipped over. Appreciate your thoughts as always.

Well captured, I really like the pose. Lovely feather detail, and light.

Will

I'm fine with both horizons :) Hey, what horizons???
artie