Least Bittern & RP

These birds are skulkers in the reeds, so a busy scene is nearly inevitable.  I did get shots of this bird more or less in the clear, but I liked the intense hunting attitude here and thoght the reeds crossing with the neck actually added to the image.  I selected the bird and the two crossing reeds and emphasized them while reducing contrast, saturation and exposure of the rest of the image slightly.

7Dii, Sigma 150-600 C @ 215 mm, hand held lying on boardwalk, f/8, 1/500, iso 1250, aperture priority, pattern metering.  Processed in LR & PS CC.  Cropped to 13.8 MP before resizing.  Taken at 8:23 am on April 12th at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas, TX.

Comments and critiques are always appreciated.

Thanks,