Marbled Godwit

Elise, I like the simplicity of the image, the subtle ripples and the godwit's reflection. Personally, I wish the bird were looking to our left instead of out of the frame edge that's so close to it.

From the size and shape of the bill I don't think this is a godwit - that species has a longer bill with an obvious upturn in it not evident in your photo. Going by the elongated proportions and bill this could be a Greater Yellowlegs, but its hard to tell from the small size of the bird in the frame and the small size of the image itself.

Can you post a tight crop of just the bird and reflection, and with lower contrast, so we can get a better look?

With your ISO of 200 you can probably crop in on this bird and give us a little more detail. I'm kind of interested-you had 400mm of lens and this post is at 260mm. Why did you not use the full length?

You know, I think you may be right -- here's a link to the long-billed curlew, a similar species: http://www.sanctuarysimon.org/species/species_info.php?speciesID=649&src=spp&search=species&name=&group=&taxonomicGroup= (sorry, I don't see how to make a simpler link).

Here's a link to the full-size photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mythlady/4783919508/sizes/o/

I didn't focus in any closer on the bird because I wanted a different kind of picture -- I was sure they would get many, many lovely close-ups of birds (from photographers far more skilled than I, I'm sure). In the five pictures I submitted, I was trying for something not so run-of-the-mill, and they asked for high-res versions of two of them (this one and one of a hummingbird, again, not a close-up), so we'll see what they finally decide. When I looked at the pictures in last year's calendar, there was a wide variety, not only close-ups of the birds, sea otters, and so on.

I liked the composition of the whole (though you may not agree . . . ). In a print there are very subtle colors in the water (pink, for one thing), the faint ripples and so on.

Hope some of that makes sense -- thanks for the interest and feedback.

Thanks for the link to the larger version. This is a Willet; I'm more familiar with the eastern race and this western breeding plumage is something I've never seen in the wild.

The image is interesting and the reflection is nice. The only nit I have is the bird is a little close to the edge of the frame to be looking in that direction.

Elise: I'm not a bird guy but I like this as is. It's unconventional to have the bird looking out of the frame but the small sand bar and the reflection make this appealing to me. Nice job of making lemonade from lemon conditions. >=))>

I agree with Bill on this one Elise. My opinion is that the sandbar balances the bird here.

Thanks very much -- I know it doesn't follow "the rules," and I wish there were more space on the right, but for me anyway, it still works.