That's a great image to start with. Nice capture. I love how they look like twins facing opposite directions.

The secret to removing things is to work in layers a little at a time. Duplicate your layer, move the bottom layer slightly one way or the other, then use a layer mask on the top layer to remove the thing you don't want. Sometimes you can only remove a small piece of it. Then merge the visible layers and do it again. And again and again. As many times as required to get the offending part removed. It takes practice, but once you get the hang of it you can zip right along.

Mark