Ken, nice pose...brings a smile. stating the obvious here...BG is too close to the bird for my liking...and yours too am sure :-) did you try one wide-open?
Thanks very much for your comments, I have to agree that the BG is not the best (to say the least) especially the fact that the colurs are pretty similar.
But the expression and stance is what I wanted, perhaps as Kaustubh suggested I should have gone at F4