A Great Egret carrying nesting material at St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery, St. Augustine Florida.

At the Alligator Farm there is a hierarchy of possible shots, and the stick shot on the wing is the highest (and the hardest). It was this kind of shot that drove my search for a new camera over the past months. This is not DSLR quality, but it is, given what I am willing to carry (and can afford) very satisfying none the less.

Nikon Coolpix P500 at 309mm equivalent field of view, f5.4 @ 1/1500th @ ISO 160. User defined Flight mode (Continuous Focus, follow focus, center metering, rapid capture of 5 frames at 8 fps).

Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and sharpness (some extra recovery for highlights).

And here are two more from the same sequence of shots. The last shot catches the wing folding that happens on the upstroke to spill the air and maintain lift.