So we've come around to an entire year since I started doing this. That's pretty exciting!
It does seem that the juvenile IS getting bolder. I would NEVER have been able to approach him this closely last year. Although s/he is still more timid than the adults, I managed to get several decent shots.
I did try a new tactic; sneaking up wasn't really working so on this day I started belting out a song at the top of my lungs when I was still quite far away. I thought perhaps s/he would view me more with curiousity rather than fear if I made my presence painfully obvious. That might not be why he stood his ground for so long (there was an adult keeping watch from several hundred meters away); I'll have to try it again sometime to see if it really does work or if I was just lucky.
By the time I got this close he started getting nervous. He 'bobbed' a couple of times, almost started to spread his wings for take-off but didn't.
This shot is a split-second before he did finally fly away; I don't know if you can see but there's tension running across his front from his head to his feet as he built up energy to take off.
This is a SPECTACULARLY close up fly by! Notice how you can clearly see the three layers of feathers. These are my favourite kinds of shots; all the elements are there - the light was good, it's not too far away, it's a good composition, the colours are great . . . and I could feel the sheer POWER as it flew past me.
This shot I really love as well, because you can see the colour underneath their wings. I call this one "Lazy Departure" because s/he just kind of ''floated' past me.
Maybe he wasn't scared off at all! Maybe he was just looking for some personal space.
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