I could almost hear Artie's voice ringing in my ears when I took this image - "keep the sun at your back check the histogram, keep low as possible".
I took probably 200 images of this little knot mostly very similar, with the sun absolutely at right angle to the subject but he looks rather static. Relatively little processing - minor tweek in Adobe RAW, S/H in Photoshop Selective colour to make it pop a little. I did some brushing and cloning in the background.
Fabulous detail on the bird Johnathan, and super low SA, a little head turn toward you would have been great but they just refuse to do it don't they. Like the unusual BG color
Look sharp, well expose with good details and love the low angle as well. The bottom feel a bit tight for me so maybe a little more room at the bottom and less at the top. Not sure about the two small OOF white circle near the ground.
Excellent feather detail Jonathan, sharp, and you sure nailed the light. Comp wise, I would take half off the top, and at the bottom, add double the space you have there already.
Thanks for the feed back, I did in fact extend the bottom bit but the larger OOF area doesn't look too good, I suppose I could extend the frosty in focus part.