I think a square frame might have enhanced it somewhat. Looking at the still and calm water, probably adding more to the bottom instead of the top might have looked good too. When there are not many elements in a frame to generate interest, one needs to be extremely careful with the framing and composition. I was also thinking that you had a fantastic chance of utilizing the patterns of the grass and the dragonfly as the main subject and easily could have shifted the bird into out of focus ( with enough DOF to retain the shape ). That shot would have been really interesting.

Thanks for the inputs Nilanjan. . those thoughts actually never came to my mind when i was shooting this sandpiper maybe will develop with time . . this image was made last year and i use to solely focus on the subjects only. Will post another image quite similar to this one with a square crop.

Beautiful soft feel to the image. Like the out of focus of back ground. While I tend to agree with Nilanjan, I think black strip on top and gradation adds to the image.