James, I love it. The OOF peeps add texture and the semi focused ones add interest. I like the gulls head turn and the color tones through out the image. I might crop a little off the bottom if it were mine. Nice eye and low angle for this one.
Love this image! Very creative use of DOF. The gull really pops both because of its size and because of the selective focus. Perfect head angle. I do agree with Denise's suggestion to crop off the bottom of the frame. I wish we had a clean look at the gull's right leg. I'm not sure if you blurred the peeps at all (I suspect you did because you were at f/8). If you did blur them, I would consider sharpening up the ones in the same focal plane as the gull. I don't mean crisply focused; just more in focus.