Beautiful images in tough lighting conditions. The colors, poses, and texture are great. I enjoy seeing an exotic animal even if it is in a rehab center, the only way the rest of us can share that experience with you. Thank you.

Please report that mischievous cooper's hawk to:
http://www.reportband.gov. You got a good closeup shot of both of the bands and their codes. Possibly some people who are following that bird might want to communicate with some other folks who are following the snowy owl.
I really enjoyed your encounter of the osprey and red tailed hawk as well. I go to Bolsa Chica a lot. There is an osprey platform on PCH just north of Seaview on the last power pole heading toward the footbridge. That's a bit away from Talbot Marsh if that's where you saw the osprey. I live in Laguna Beach and have the same camera setup as you took those shots with. Do you live locally?
Alan Grant

Beautiful shots of cattle egrets in alternate plumage. I've never seen that before. Here in California the snowy egrets males have an elaborate signaling ritual when approaching the nest in order to ask permission from the female to land on the nest. They also make a very interesting gurgling sound when in breeding season. If you are interested I have posted it on my YouTube channel flabellina (red circle thumbnail with lower case white f in it). There's about 8 pages of videos so you may have to search for the right one.

Beautiful shots of cattle egrets in alternate plumage. I've never seen that before. Here in California the snowy egrets males have an elaborate signaling ritual when approaching the nest in order to ask permission from the female to land on the nest. They also make a very interesting gurgling sound when in breeding season. If you are interested I have posted it on my YouTube channel flabellina (red circle thumbnail with lower case white f in it). There's about 8 pages of videos so you may have to search for the right one.

Swinhoe's Whiteeye is indigenous to Eastern China and Vietnam. This bird was probably smuggled in to San Diego County several years ago as a pet and then released. It has found the mild climate in Southern California to its liking and it can now be found in backyards from coastal San Diego County to Los Angeles County, especially around back yard feeders.
boredAlan2020

Ditto on the Tokina 11-16mm lens. It is very, very sharp and a great addition to my D500. A warning though, do not use a polarizing filter with it or you will get bad results. It's tempting with landscape shots, particularly to emphasize clouds, but it will make distracting artifacts.

Re: Bird photography and Nikon Coolpix p950:
1. Great telephoto range, BUT...in order to accommodate that large zoom lens they have cut down on the rest of the guts of the camera by using 1/4" sensor and other parts. Translation: The final image to the "brains" of the camera and zillions of tiny pixels. When enlarged, sharpness is compromised.
2. Sharpest images come from any camera mounted and stabilized on a HEAVY tripod. Not very mobile in the field and useless for tracking birds in flight, but telephoto shots will be blurred by any digital camera set on long telephoto just by hand held shaking, even if they say image stabilization.
Don't use Coolpix p95 for bird shots unless you have it on a tripod, and then only with subjects that don't move around a lot or require tracking.
Re: Other cameras on a budget.
1. Absolute best is a DSLR with a prime lens (not a zoom). But that's very, very expensive whether DSLR or mirrorless, like in the 5 figure range between $10K and $20K. How serious are you about bird photography? And that would also need a heavy expensive tripod on top of that.
2. Budget minded: Get a DSLR starting with a 300mm zoom lens, perhaps off brand. The off brand lenses inherently not as sharp, but at least you can start getting better bird shots.
3. Set camera body to aperture priority, then select the most open (smallest number) f stop. This will compensate by giving you a faster shutter speed, up to 1/8000th sec. range. Set camera body to burst mode, firing anything from 6-12 frames per second. Set autofocus to zone if you can and ISO of around 1000 and exposure compensation to -0.3. Try getting some birds in flight by starting to track the bird keeping the subject in the autofocus zone while depressing the shutter release halfway. Once you have got the subject, fire off a burst of at least a dozen shots. Later, pick the ones with the best wing position. For other bird shots, use a tripod and even better if the bird isn't moving much, use a cable release too.
4. Shoot on cloudy days with lightness. It will eleiminate deep shadows and harsh highlights.
5. Try to keep the sun behind you when shooting.
6. Learn and use a good photo editing program like Photoshop or Lightroom. Many to choose from but learning curve is a bit steep. Ask friends to help you learn. It will improve the final product greatly.

Good luck, boredAlan

I still have my parents Bell and Howell regular 8 film movie camera with a 3 lens turret on it and it still works. They gave it to each other in 1940 as a wedding gift and filmed their honeymoon. I converted that to video in the 1980s with an early Sony Beta VCR and the audio dubbed their live voice narraton on top of it, then made a DVD about 5 years ago and sent it to all of the children of my deceased cousins. It was a big hit. I don't know if you can still buy a 25 ft. reel of 16 mm film and get it processed anywhere. They cut it apart and glued it back into a 50 ft. reel. I still have a projector that works. That camera was during an early color home movie revolution by Kodak.
I also have an old pop-open Poloroid camera and a Nikon F3 highpoint film camera and a few old rolls of Kodak Kodachrome 64. But now everything is 4K video and Nikon digital. Too bad. Wish Kodachrome 25 was still around.

If your budget can afford, go for something with up to 4-500mm, either zoom or prime. There are two varieties: less expensive 4-5.6 variable f stop rated lenses and super expensive f4 only through zoom range or f4 or less prime lenses. I would stick with new or used Nikon lenses and avoid the temptation of less expensive other brand lenses. They are not as sharp or as fast with autofocus. Save up your money and shop EBay or Craigslist but be careful with return policies and ability to check lenses for any mold or other internal defects. You can do that by "mowing the lawn" with the lens mounted on your camera body and set on the most wide angle setting. Then point the camera up to the sky or other brightly illuminated monochrome view and using the arrows on the back of the camera run from top left to bottom right, line by line down the viewfinder image. If you encounter any black spots or smudges, it is probably something internal in the lens an either very expensive to clean or not possible. Also make sure you are on manual focus at the nearest focal plane setting.

Here is a link to the phenomenon seen in the mandarin duck:
https://www.thespruce.com/bird-leucism-387342

Dear sudamar:
The mandarin duck (female I presume) is not an albino, it is a leucitic animal. They differ from true albinos in that they have normal pigment in their eyes as opposed to pink eyes. See: https://www.thespruce.com/bird-leucism-387342

That's a rare shot!! Mandarins originate in China and their folklore goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. They are symbols of marital happiness and fidelity. They are also collected, smuggled and kept as pets and some actually escape or are released into municipal ponds and parks and then become established if foraging and breeding is successful. They are seen somewhat often in southern California now. The male is about as spectacular as a duck gets!

Bolsa Chica is a great refuge for all kinds of migrating shorebirds as well as some interesting year round residents. February is the beginning of the breeding season for certain birds, in particular certain terns and some of the early grebes. Right now is almost devoid of birds because most of the migrations have already occurred. From day to day Bolsa Chica is highly variable and pretty much hit or miss. Great access from a small parking lot to a footbridge that crosses a long thin artificial shallow channel, very dependent on tidal levels which are roughly out of sync to the outside ocean tides due to a distant inlet and weir that feed it. But when things are hopping, you can have brown pelicans diving literally at your feet about 10 ft. away, swarms of feeding frenzies with cormorants, snowy egrets and great egrets all in on the fray and even the occasional pacific loon and occasional out of range migrants. There are some other nearby refugia that are also great for spotting abundant bird life. About 15 miles away is San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, and extensive network of settling ponds surrounded by a web of elevated causeways. You can look it up on Google Maps. It is adjacent to the University of California at Irvine. A couple of other interesting spots are Irvine Park near Santiago Canyon just east of the city of Orange, and TeWinkle Park in Costa Mesa where I just spotted two mating pairs of mandarin ducks and a muscovy duck. My most productive recent photography success has been in San Joaquin with multiple vermillion flycatchers and an out of range eurasian green-wing teal. At San Joaquin some of the ponds will start to have the fascinating courtship rituals of Western and Clarke's grebes where they engage in rushing and stand up and run neck and neck across the water.
I hope you luck out on the two days you are here in February.
Alan Grant

I am replying to your post about drones. I have owned drones for over 5 years. Here is my advice:
1. Do your research extensively before buying. If there is a local location store that sells drones, go there and chat them up on the important features.
2. For your first drone, don't by one that's cheap. It will be a waste of money. Commit yourself to spending at least several hundred dollars at least.
3. When you get the drone, go online and download an owner's manual. It won't make much sense at first, but read it through.
4. Find a large flat open space devoid of nearby trees or power lines and away from people.
5. Learn to lift off and then fly experimental routes not to far off the ground and learn to return to base and do a controlled landing. Do not fly too far off to a point where you can't see the drone and determine it's change of direction from your joystick controls.
6. When you are flying, and you are unsure of your direction or position, always take your hands off of the joysticks and let the drone pause and hover and then slowly start moving it again so you know it's orientation or position.
8. Do not fly over water, over crowds of people, or too close to trees or other fixed objects. It's very easy to end up misjudging distances and end up crashing the drone.
9. The drone receives it's commands through a wi-fi channel link to your controller. If you make the mistake of flying in an area where there is a lot of RF interference in the area, like dense urban areas or in an area of hilly topography, you may lose your line of sight communication. In that event your drone may suddenly cease to respond to your joystick commands and my just continue to fly onward, eventually getting totally lost or crashing in some inaccessible area or worse, doing some damage to something or somebody.
10. Be careful, and be cautious and practice a lot and learn before you let your enthusiasm overwhelm you in your desire to get great aerial images and video.
11. And one last thing: Do not fly close to wildlife. Drones can disturb them and may, in fact be illegal.
Good luck!
Alan Grant
dentadive@gmail.com
PS: Feel free to contact me by email if I can help further

Hi:
I have been on Ugly Hedgehog for a while but lost my password. Now it's restored. A friend sent me your post. I have had two drones, a DJI Phantom 2+ and now a Mavic 2 Pro. They can be tricky to use. That's why a lot of people lose them or crash them!
I would be happy to help you. Can we set up an email conversation outside of Ugly Hedgehog. My name is Alan Grant and my email is dentadive@gmail.com. When you contact me, tell me what brand and model of drone you have and if it's an older drone with a GoPro, if you have a gimbal mount for it. Also tell me what part of the country you live in and what kind of shots you would like to get.
Alan Grant
8 29 2020

Beautiful close up head on shot of a double crested cormorant. Looks like a male just coming into alternate (breeding) plumage. the long black eyebrows should turn a wispy white making his head with those eyes irresistible to a female! Good work.