Great Egret

I love the tones on the lilies, which tend to distract from the bird

Very nice capture: good rich colors, the white is nicely detailed.  The subject is placed nicely within the borders of the photo.   You did well!

This I saw on the side of a criitique I left you with samples of your other work. I love Egrets. I have a portfolio of them. But I like this a lot due to being shot in soft light. It's very tough to show detail in white feathers in the sun. The overcast darkness makes this shot. Perfect exposure, nice detail.

Two suggestions. One, the only distraction (for me) is the root in the bottom. I'd crop it. Two, only for future use with Egret shots in the sun is to spot meter on something and take a test shot to make sure you have the right exposure. Then, if an egret comes, or an egret is what your after, drop 2 stops! If not, it's off to over exposure land. While we can drop a few stops in editing, we can't add detail that we lost by missing the exposure.... Keep 'um coming!