Dunlin in morning light

I shot this image at a local beach about 30 mins after sunrise. It was a very cold and windy day. Even at low tide, the shorebird numbers were quite low and the birds were very skittish. I laid prone on a part of the beach with lots of pools and green moss, hoping that the birds would eventually get acclimatized to my presence. The birds just didn't cooperate, but as I was about to give up, a solitary Dunlin walked right up to me, giving great views and almost filling the frame. Unfortunately, the spooky behaviour of the other birds meant that I had a 1.4x TC on. Ideally, I'd opt for a slightly looser crop, but the detail and light in this frame really caught my eye. I added a hair of canvas around the bird for composition and cloned out a few distracting specular highlights on the bill.

Camera - Nikon D850
Focal Length - 700mm
Aperture - f/8
Shutter Speed - 1/2500s
ISO - 1000
Handheld
Manual, Auto ISO
~90% of Full-frame

As always, all comments & CC are appreciated :bg3:

Hi Aditya, great low perspective, and I like the walking pose with the slightly raised foot. The feather detail shows up nicely, and overall, nice and sharp. I do like the colour of the water.

The low angle is great. Love that blue background. Nice to have a slightly raised foot. Framing is right on.

Nice low shooting angle and details.. The bird just does not look very happy to me....

A fine shot Aditya, exposure is good, personal taste I think I would lower contrast a tad on the bird. I like the foam on the legs. I appreciate the eye is dark but maybe just a hint of eye doctoring to demonstrate the pupil v iris.

Really like this one Aditya, nice low perspective and the out of focus surf makes for a beautiful background. I really like the tiny bit of green in the foreground too, my only criticism would be that I'd have liked to have seen the bird walking towards you, still a really nice frame though and the head angle is great.

Great low view, the blue background really makes him pop. He was certainly very close, so you handled the composition challenge well. I'm a stickler for sharp legs, but I understand it was tough to get them in focus with
him so close. I agree with lowering contrast on the bird; he looks the slightest bit crunchy on the back. Details are otherwise excellent.

Terrific low POV.
I love the foam on the legs. The blues are very nice and work well with the rather plain bird.
I also like that lone ilttle brown feather on the flank.
Nice catchlight.
Your PP work is excellent and I can not tell you added canvas.
I would not have noticed a contrast issue had I not read the previous comments. Still looks Ok to me,
Gail

Nice low POV. I like the raised foot, but would have like to see it out just a bit more to be picky. Foam on the legs is very cool. Nice rich colors. Maybe a little crunchy on the details, but not so noticeable either. TFS