Cloning technique and Fish Crow captures

Should I clone or should I not that is the question. I recently went to the Meadowlands to try for this Red Shouldered Hawk that seemed to have every time I tried for a captured a ton of branches obstructing the composition,I followed this Raptor for some time till finally I got my chance ,it was quite a nice Shot but still I had to remove some branches to make the capture presentable here is the transformation. please let me know if you see any infractions.

                                          

                                                 And the final version all obstructions removed.

                                                    

 After the Meadowland I decided to head to Elmwood park at the Passiac River to a very reliable Fish Crow spot .    

What a great time these guys were very tame and it was great to work on getting my Black detail's down, It was funny I heard American Crows in the same area but they were no way as approachable .