Sean
I've never seen one with a pine cone in the talon so I don't know what that was about. I think this one came out pretty well.....was this harsh lighting? It's pretty nice detail but I'm wondering if it was a large crop. I like James' suggestion on cropping.
Agree with previous Can add you could select the blue bg and reduce noise Doing so for the overall image would soften the bird !!!
You did well dialing some Plus comp for the exposure A bit of fill flash would have been nice For that you probably had to reduce your ss to reach !!! With the suggested crop it will have a much stronger visual interest A very nice image !!!!