Nuthatch & Repost

Red-breasted Nuthatch at a new perch above my pond following David Schoen's technique of jamming one end of the perch into a pvc pipe.  I used a 45 degree angle fitting to get a nicer angle.  This was my second try-the first perch was designed for songbirds and apparently something larger tried to use it because I found most of it in the pond and only a small piece projecting from the pvc pipe.

7Dii, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, tripod with ballhead and sidekick mount, f/8, 1/800, iso 1600, aperture priority, pattern metering, -1 1/3 EV to avoid blowing out the perch against a dark green bg.  Processed in LR & PS CC.  I used a brights 2 TK luminosity mask on the perch and bg with a curves layer to darken the perch a bit and lighten the bg.  I used a midtones mask on the bird to try to make it pop a little better.  Cropped to a 10 MP 4x5 before resizing.  Taken this morning at 10:24 am under covercast skies.

Your comments and critiques are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,