Probably not low enough for the theme. Since we were headed out to dinner, I chose to kneel in the muck rather than lie in it. In any case, I liked this Dowitcher with his bill showing. More often than not they are doing their "sewing-machine" thing with the bill hidden in the water. From Fort DeSoto in early February. I'm doing some more experimenting with sharpening. This looked seriously over-sharpened in PS at 1600px prior to posting.
Like this capture, Bill. Nice slightly open beak, and soft light. The original post looks over sharpened on my monitor, and the repost is a little better.
OK. Here's one more attempt. This may be somewhere in between [or maybe just like the OP?], although my eyes are getting blurry from looking at it too much. Your feedback is very helpful.
On my monitor it's quite an improvement, if not on the money. It looks sharp and no crunchiness. I hope you are keeping track of all the fine tuning you're doing especially this latest one.