This is a 2 image photomerge. The bird is one of the two Ruffs that were present at the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area in Northern California this past winter, a rarity here. I refer to this individual as "Reeve" which is the female of the species. I photographed the pair of birds over 3 or 4 days and shot many images. When I was editing the images, it was sometimes hard to tell which was the "Ruff" or male and which was the "Reeve" or female. So, this may or may not be the Reeve. The images were captured using a Nikon D200 with a 400mm f3.5 EDIF manual focus lens with a TC14B converter, ISO 100, wide open at 1/1600sec. I used photomerge in the interactive mode and then used a typical workflow, saved for web and then sharpened with Nik Sharpener Pro Inkjet edition.
And more bird panos - this is great and thanks for posting another Dan. I am liking the repost and I still think the grasses in the water are quite cool. Nice work.
Dan,
I might suggest that there should be a little more space on the left side of the frame for the bird to fly into. This image is almost too symmetrical and that would also help to break that up.