BB plover at dawn

[allanrube]

There were many least sandpipers around, but this lone black-bellied plover was standing near the water's edge last Thursday shortly after dawn.

D300s 600 with 1.7tc 1/400 at f/7.1 0EV (auto)iso 800.

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice golden light, exposure, and sharpness. Seems to need some CW rotation. The FG is not ideal, but nod bad either.

[Ian Mason]

Beautiful early light really shows the bird nicely. I don't mind the foreground. Am I seeing a halo round the bird, especially the beak and back or are my eyes being deceived by the lighter bits of the background?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great light, BG and good sharpness. I might crop a bit off the top and if it were mine I would remove the piece of seaweed (?) in front of the bird since the rest is so clean. Could this be an American Golden-Plover?

[allanrube]

Axel, see my thread here. There have been no responses yet.

[Dave Barnes]

Sweet light and interesting comp. good detail and exposure.

[allanrube]

I added a blue filter in PS - does this help?

[allanrube]

I wrote to BirdForum and one guy said it is definitely an AGP. He also sent this comparison page.

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

The original image is very nice. The lovely warm lights paint not only the bird but its surroundings.
The repost is a misroute, I guess. The image lost all its uniqueness and intimacy.

Szimi

[allanrube]

Szimi, I guess my repost confused you. I like the original but I could not tell if it was an AGP or a BBP. (After getting many opinions I still don't.) The only reason I posted the 2nd image was to help with an ID. Someone wrote me saying it was harder to id with the warm light.