Well, Bill, you did great here. The blacks are not solid closed and the whites have a bit of detail, although they could use some multiplying, I took a quick stab at it.
In Digital Workflow I have a short tutorial on how to recoup whites.
Your composition is good and so is the detail. Nice work :)
Very nice angle and pose. The repost looks even better. I'm not sure about the composition, probably because it is square. I might try a more vertical crop.
Exposure is always the issue with these Loons isn't it? I usually meter off the whites so they're not blown... shooting RAW will help you as well as you have more leverage in PP recovery. I personally would do this in a horizontal crop losing most of the top and some of the bottom of the image. Nice job.