Wow love these images Michael and you did so well to capture the eyes on both mother and baby so clearly. Good suggestions from Axel. Love the endearing pose you captured here Michael. Many thanks for sharing.
You really captured the intimacy between parent and chick quite well. I agree it could go a tad lighter, and I would crop about half off the bottom. At right it looks good, but I would crop a very tiny bit (as posted no more than 1/4") just to hide the very small black triangle on the bird touching the sand at the right edge (you could also just clone that out). I know it is very small, but I think that would make that edge line much cleaner...
I would crop about half the sand off the bottom. More important, set white point on mom's white feathers.
There's also lots of shadow details that will come out with the S/H filter and some selective sharpening. Nice capture.