To 'E' or Not to 'E'

Is it OK to edit photographs to improve an image?  It's not's something I do very often (mainly because I'm not very good at it) but once in a while a photo seems to call out for a bit of tweaking.  That's what I thought with this recent Cuckoo shot anyway. As long as it's not faking what happened or what I saw, I think it's perfectly acceptable to do this - after all it's only what darkroom photographers have done for years to improve shots.  I'll let you be the judge.

Original shot with perch

Cropped and edited shot with perch removed

Kent Trip Day 5 - Colin, the Thursley Common Cuckoo

So my last day on an extended weekend trip to Kent, East Sussex and south-west Surrey came to an end today with the highlight and main focus of the journey down south, apart from seeing my son in Chatham of course.  I'd got wind of some great Cuckoo shots coming out of Thursley and, with a bit of investigation on Facebook, I found out the details of where it was and a how to see it.  The locals have named him Colin, and David Sewell who I'd met and chatted with on Facebook, very kindly agreed to meet me in Thursley and take me to the site.  As you can see, I wasn't disappointed.

Although I am generally very critical about all my shots, I have to say that I am very pleased with these and they may indeed be the best wild bird photographs I've ever taken.  Isn't it nice when a plan comes together?