Another beauty - the soft light, pose, and prey are just great. I agree with your assessment of cropping too closely - it’s always tempting, but - often - a bit more room or including environment works even better.
A perfect example of this is Max Waugh’s recent 2018 NPN Wildlife #1 win of the year here:
Dave, Please take a chance to read the guidelines about frequency of posting, and also the suggested size of the upload. Even small-size uploads show up very crisp and sharp here - 1100 pixels on the long side is fine, with a quality of 6-7 (under 1 mb).
Keep these great images coming!
Sandy