Bob White.

[Karl Egressy]

This bird has not been seen or reported in HSA (Hamilton Study Area) where I do most of my birding and shooting since 1979.
It is an extremely rare vagrant in our area.
I went up to Niagara Escarpment this morning and I heard its calling even before I stopped the car.
Great to have some luck sometimes.
Thanks for looking.

Canon 5DM3
Canon 500 f4.0 II. +1.4X III.
ISO 400
f 7.1
1/500 s
Tripod.

[nick clayton]

I love the subdued light, beautiful colours and the back looking pose. I think I would have preferred the left branch not breaking the frame at the top edge.

[Karl Egressy]

I love the subdued light, beautiful colours and the back looking pose. I think I would have preferred the left branch not breaking the frame at the top edge.

Thanks, Nick.
I also noticed that I left a few marks behind while I was cloning out some OOF branches.
I'll wait and try to fix all the problems at once.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Excellent image Karl, congrats on photographing this rare bird in your area. Pleasing comp, nice HA and good details.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, nicely shown. If mine I would shorten the left branch and work on making the end look natural. The cloning artifacts are easily fixed. I envy you my friend, this bird I hear all the time but have yet to photograph. It is on my bucket list.

[William Dickson]

Well done Karl, lovely image captured in a dream come true moment

[Enrique Patino]

Great image. Tough perch! yes on the marks... TFS

[Karl Egressy]

Thank you all. I removed the cloning artifacts or I believe I did, and shortened the left side of the perch as suggested by Nick.

[Diane Miller]

Wonderful find, and looks like you did a heroic job! You got most of them. Here's how to tell. It may seem like overkill, until you print or post somewhere and the flaws show.

Make a Levels layer and bring in the end sliders to the tonal range involved -- here, a light sky. Works equally well for a dark area, just different slider moves. With the layer active, go back to the BG layer and do your cloning.

(This is your OP.)

[Karl Egressy]

Wonderful find, and looks like you did a heroic job! You got most of them. Here's how to tell. It may seem like overkill, until you print or post somewhere and the flaws show.

Make a Levels layer and bring in the end sliders to the tonal range involved -- here, a light sky. Works equally well for a dark area, just different slider moves. With the layer active, go back to the BG layer and do your cloning.

(This is your OP.)

Thanks Diane. Pretty amazing. I learned something new. I won't post it again but I did it and it worked thanks to your advice.

[Shawn Zierman]

Very cool to see one perched off the ground Karl. Nice light on the subject, and the pose is strong, giving a perfect all around view of the bird. Nice tip from Diane on fixing bg issues with brighter backgrounds where things like dust bunnies and clone marks are harder to see.

[David Salem]

Great find Karl. I like the pose and the perch that it chose. The detail and exposure look good considering the lighting. Dont see these guys off the ground to much. Congrats.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hello Karl, I read Diane's advice for seeing cloning artifacts and spots and removing them, here is another way which I think might easier. If you are using Lightroom 5 click on the Spot Removal Tool. At the bottom of the screen put a check mark in the box next to Visualize Spots. Then using the slider move it all the way to the right. All the cloning artifacts and spots will then show up. The Spot Removal Tool can be used to clean them up.