Early Rail First Post

I knew this guy was there somewhere.
So I got there before sunrise and waited.
He came out and walked all the way around the pond.

Canon 5D 100-400mm @400mm Iso 400 1/80 @f6.3 No flash

Les Twining

Hello Les - Glad you joined us. You know I love this picture - the soft blurred foreground, the perfect body angle and use of natural light, the eye and bill are sharp, the wonderful color satuation. Excellent in my humble opinion. And I have seen this in print.

Patty Corapi

I understand that this bird is difficult to photograph, so I congratulate you on this. The bird looks good. The out of focus foreground bothers me. I think cropping some of it out would help.

Beautiful King Rail photograph Les (welcome too)! We seldom see any images of the secretive rails and so it's a pleasure to have your image here. I think this image could be improved by cropping some off the bottom of the image so that the rail sits lower in the frame. I like the OOF green vegetation, so I'd be sure to leave some of that. It really looks excellent to me! By the way, where was this taken?

Thanks
Taken at Circle B Nature Preserve In Lakeland, Florida