All I will say is,this is an excellent shot.The sharpness,Colors,BG,Details and composition all work for me.I will not talk about the grass as each one has his/her opinion,but I like it.Only suggestion would be to clone out the stick protruding in from the LRC.Well done.
Nice image Mike. I like the sharpness, eyes and BG. I tried a different crop eliminating the twig in the LRC. I would consider cloning out the horizontal OOF grass on the right. I am curious what setting you used.
It would be a big help to us in critiquing if you would please post your settings. I very much like Jim's crop b/c the original had a bit too much empty space at the top for my taste. I see 2 catch lights and wonder whether you were using a flash. I think I might consider removing the right catch light if it were mine. Colors look nice, as does exposure, and I like the vegetation in front of the owl b/c that's how we often see them.