A solid 30 minutes of stalking this bird through knee deep mud finally rewarded me with a series of shots-everything from environmental shots, to full body shots, to headshots. I've never caught an Egret preening so when this guy started to preen the motordrive started firing and I started grinning. Overall today was one of my most rewarding outings and really kept me positive about one day pursuing avian photography as a full time career once I finish college.
As far as crit goes-I normally don't like such a centralized composition but I don't mind it much here. I wish that I had gotten a more frontal angle instead of such a profile however I could not change my position without ending up to my waist in water. There is also too much background noise which I am working on dealing with in Noise Ninja. Curious what you guys have to say about it.
Olympus E500, Sigma 50-500mm @ 500mm, ISO 400, F/9, 1/1250, Aperture Priority, -1EV Compensation, Minor Levels, Saturation, USM and crop to vertical.
Exposure control and details look good. I would go for a wider crop left and right and run NR on the BG and wish for a bit more eye contact. Keep them coming!