splashing around in the mud

today has been spent refining the foreground of this image.ive worked up some of the estuary mud and water puddles and started to work up the reflections from both the avocet and moorhen.i dont normally start with the foreground on something like this but because the tones are very light with the entire background i wanted to set my darkest one's early on so i didn't go too dark.talking of dark,my apologies for the darkness of the photo but the nights are closing in rapidly now as we approach winter and time flew by today rather catching me out.