whatever method you used ruined your tree-line; that's the first thing I noticed when I viewed them full size.
Next thing I noticed was how "crayon-like" the image looks--like you ran it through a lot of noise reduction.
The colors between the two shots are vastly differently. The orange on the excavator is much more intense on the first shot, and the second shot is pretty washed out. Both have two much contrast and the sh
In terms of HDR, I'm not really seeing it -- I'm pretty sure you could have done the same with a single RAW capture and some time in post. Still a lot of dark areas that should have visible information but you're just presenting as black.
I bracket 9 images half stop each,
There was no need for 9 images -- you only need enough to capture the DR of the scene.
Take a shot where you are just clipping the blacks. add a 1/2 or 2/3 a stop and take another. Repeat this until you're just clipping whites. An arbitrary number of shots just has diminishing returns, it provides no additional image information and takes more processing power/time.