Thanks for the comments which are very much appreciated. I like what you have done Doug although I'm not 100% sure about the brightening of the gull, does it look a little bit artificial, or is it just me?

Prior to seeing your version Doug and techniques I wouldn't have considered due to my knowledge level, I would have done the same crop as suggested by Marina and just selected the background and desaturated, which I have done on the attached repost by -10. As an afterthought I noticed that some of the bird had a blue colour cast so I selected the bird and desaturated the blues.