Eat your nuts

[Gareth]

Just one of the many from todays trip

 

[Gareth]

You need to clone the speckle out between his eyes

Why ? It's the same grains of sand that cover his nose after rummaging the ground to search for food. It's reality.
Agree about the background; on reflection a wider appature would have been better, but it's a case of striking a balance between getting the subject sharp & isolating the background.
Still - practice, practice, practice