Singin' Lark

As Kurt commented in a recent post, I've been thinking of warmer days of late, or at least days with more critters around to point my lens at, and this picture reminded me of warm days and lots of accompanying photo opps.

Just a simple photograph of a happy meadow lark singing away on a post in our driveway. To give you a little context, the reservoir we live beside is surrounded by a large boundary of protected land, which is great grassland habitat below the Rocky Mountains here in SW Alberta. Our driveway is 1km and borders this "Rec Land" its entire length, which means we get to encounter all kinds of resident fauna on anytime we leave the house. I'm embarrassed to say, however, that I spend FAR too few days in a blind in my own yard/driveway or neighbouring rec land, so despite seeing these guys daily in the summer and early autumn, it's rare that I end up with one in the viewfinder. 

We were headed out for mule deer bucks in velvet when this guy landed on a post ahead of the truck and began singing, so I swapped the 500mm onto a crop sensor body for a little more reach and honoured his song with a picture.

Thanks in advance for your comments, critiques and suggestions...please view the larger version for better detail and colour if you have time.

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Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/4D IF-ED
ISO 125
1/250sec @ f/4
Mounted on Kirk WM-2 window mount with Acratech GV2 ballhead
Cropped to app. 80% of original