Just as a reference, resize your pictures before posting so that it's not such a huge file to load. I swore I saw right of the ducks nostril when it was loading
Don't be too discouraged about that denial. From what I hear, it's not that simple to get your photos accepted, the standards are pretty strict. Just keep working at it.
Some general thoughts about the duck.
-For sepia and BW i usually increase the contrast (as a bare minimum edit when converting to BW or Sepia.
-I'm thinking a tighter crop and portrait instead of landscape. This would also serve to eliminate the other dick in the background.
- Slightly overexposed, the neck. Maybe fill-flash if you didn't use it would help to balance that out, but it's not that bad.
Edited Version
I created an edit to somewhat illustrate my comments, If you could have shot with a little grass in front of the duck that would give it some lead space toward the direction the duck is heading (and eliminate the cutoff feet). Also note I didn't place the duck in the center, but to the side with open space toward the direction the duck is looking. Had that other duck not been there I would have left a little more space above this ducks head. I played with the highlights and shadows and contrast a little bit.
I am not meaning to be critical, I sincerely hope you find these comments helpful.
Thank you for the information and the edited image. This is very helpful. I live on a lake with tons of ducks, so it looks like these guys will be my practice arena
Still adjusting and getting used to my f settings and apertures. Thanks for the link to the exposure tutorial. Extremley helpful.