It took me three months to get close enough to this beautiful bird to get a good shot. The effort paid off more than I could have expected. If I'd been ready thirty seconds earlier I might have captured the coup de grace, but I'm grateful that I was able to get this one. I attribute much of this to sheer dumb luck, persistence, and the fact that after several months of hanging out in this public park, he (or is it a she?) got acclimated to people - much less shy than in the early spring when I first encountered him and couldn't get within 500 yards of him.