I have not posted for a while, but I just managed to get a few gannet images on a weekend trip to the UK. I was trying hard to get clean backgrounds, which was not always so easy given that I was on the same cliff as the birds. If I was only interested in perched birds I would have dropped the ISO to 400, but I was also interested in capturing take-offs.
I have returned to my old method of using three rounds of USM on the subject after trying smart sharpen for a while and not getting satisfactory results.
I like the combination of the rocky cliff and distant surf. Nice pose with crop to allow room to look up into. Like the visible ribbing on the top of feet.
Sharpening looks OK to me in general. Might hit the eye again.