I don't think you skipped a beat Joe. Looks really nice and I especially like the angle of the duck's flight and the downswept wings. Only slight thing I might try is to lighten the strong diagonals on the left side as viewed.
Like the comp, pose and wing position. All are fantastic. Not sure about the background. I see bit of noise and OOF tree branches (I am guessing here) are taking me away from the subject.
The flight position and pose is really good Joe.
Just a bit of work on the BG as mentioned would really improve this.
i don't mind the dark branches as they give a sense of motion for me, just
some noise reduction to smooth it out would make the bird pop!