Least Bittern with a flying nibble

Hi all. I was at Viera today and finally had the pleasure of meeting Judy Lynn:D! Love to finally put an in person meet to a name! Still lots of activity, but in the afternoon I caught this least bittern with a dragonfly. It was right before a thunderstorm so the light was tough, but I really wanted to try and get the action, so I went to iso 1250. I did not have time to get my BB out, for he would have the dragonfly swallowed by then. The least bitterns are just everywhere at Viera, but of course it is getting them in the clear.:) Taken with the D300, Nikon 500 f4 with 1.4TC, f7.1, 1/250

http://cdn-2-service.phanfare.com/im...dbd2fde6300d_1

I think there's too much going on in the BG, but the pose, moment and light look good, I would've also try to put the bird a little, just a bit higher in the frame. Congrats still!

I'm OK with the habitat here, but it's the bright horizontal reed just above the bittern that is troublesome. Placing the subject higher in the frame is a good suggestion by Ramon. Very good catch!

very nice. I would also remove the horizontal branch in the background.

Repost with one of the suggestions taken into account. I am working on the crop. Ramon this is the environment these guys live in. The best one can do is just get the least cluttered BG, but I do appreciate what you are saying:). Thanks guys for your commets:).

http://cdn-2-service.phanfare.com/im...3b823f9afbc6_1

I know that is very difficult to isolate these birds from the BG as the places they usually move arround look like this, that's why I recomended puting the bird a bit higher in the frame, that way, a lot of the reeds from the BG wouldn't have gotten in the frame or at least not with such presence, but still is a great shot for the moment captured and the re-post loks very good!! Congratulations!