Female Wheatear?

[Peter Dransfield]

This is from this morning. I rather fancy it is a female Wheatear but I stand to be corrected as present knowledge is a lot thinner than I spread my butter, sadly.

female wheatear1 by Peter Dransfield, on Flickr

 

[gramps]

1st winter bird by the look of my reference book

 

[Peter Dransfield]

So also says my knowledgeable nephew so that is good enough for me - thanks Roger. My book is elswhere.

 

[pooley]

This is a beautiful shot Peter, I really like it, the head angle of the bird is perfect and the low positioning has really boosted the shot.

I think it could be improved to 'wall-hanger' status, with just a couple more tweaks, so I tried a quick rough and ready repost. I found the colours a bit thin, so I pushed the 'blacks' a bit more and lowered the highlights slightly. One point I liked about the shot was the way the bird was posing within the grasses, so I cloned out the faint grass near the neck and the long stalk towards the top right to make the grasses flow a bit more. I then finally lightened the iris very slightly to reverse what pushing the 'blacks' earlier had done. About 30 seconds work all told. What do you think?

Mike

 

[Peter Dransfield]

I think you have done an excellent job Mike. Thanks.

 

[den]

Lovely capture ,with a improved edit

 

[cruso]

Very nice indeed

 

[Stuart Philpott]

Peter,you should be really proud of yourself mate. this is a wicked shot,just gorgeous . Great pov cool BKG bird 's pose is wonderful sharp ,what's not to like. Peter Mikes pushed it up a notch with his amazing skills but you got yourself a corker here mate,well done
cheers for sharing inspiring stuff buddy

stu

 

[nc_killie]

Lovely capture ,with a improved edit

+1

 

[Peter Dransfield]

Thanks for the comments guys and thanks again to Mike for his edit - I have replaced the original on flickr with my own edit but I think Mike's should stand here.