Little Egret drawing

This drawing is quite unusual for me,in that it is a very small piece measuring only 5"x11".It's been a bit of an experiment as i wanted to see if i could produce a relatively detailed drawing at such a small size.one of the problems with working in graphite is the time it takes to complete an image and i wanted to see if i could shorten this timescale without losing quality of imagery.i would love to hear what you all think as i really enjoyed being able to get an image onto paper so quickly(2 days) after observing the bird without sacrificing the quality.

Whenever i get a break from a drawing i love to get out my mountain bike and head of to my favourite local birding spots either on the river hamble estuary or to my local bird reserve at titchfield haven.This time of year there are plenty of interesting migrants arriving to supplement the resident species.this reference was obtained on the estuary at warsash at low tide when many of the mudflats are exposed and the wading birds dash in to feed before the tide returns submerging there food source until the next low tide.It was a beautiful crisp,sunny autumn day with barely any wind and so the water that remained in the saltmarsh pools was like a millpond with wonderful shadows and reflections from the strong sunlight.i watched several of our resident little egrets wading around in the shallow water,stirring the muddy bottom with one foot and scanning the resultant cloudy patch for fleeing fish,occasionally darting head-first into the water to retreive a tiddler or two.the shadows cast on the pure white egrets with the sun behind them provided quite a contrast to the silvery still water and immediately i knew there was a drawing to be had here and so here is the result.i'm hoping to produce some more of these smaller pieces documenting the birdlife on my 'patch' as birds are by far my favourite subjects.hope you all enjoy this one.