Lovely flight pose on this snowy. Since you have already reworked this frame a tad, I would remove the greyish BG near the top left of the frame. Your exposure is spot on and you have a great angle. I wonder if there is any way you could blue the bottom portion of the BG just a tad as the dark spots are quite strong in this image.
Love how the owl really pops against that background, Dave. Great oncoming pose. Agree with Marina that the dark spots are pretty attention-getting. Maybe try to blur or lighten, could clone from other, lighter areas.
Sounds like it appears a bit rough around the edges so to speak. The habitat was making a transition from grassy to more wet/clumpy and I knew that. Perhaps a bit of softening up is called for.