That last one was shot last week. It was the photo that made me want to get the barn. Before that, I was intentionally avoiding the barn because theres a lot of junk around it. But blurred in the background, it looks sweet. Really like the light rain falling on this bird as well as the character of the post.
We actually take pretty extreme measures to get every element in out shots. Sometimes, with nervous birds, you have to take whatever they give you and you get a handful of savable shots out of a filled 8gig card.
We shoot from the window of a vehicle. These birds are WAY more tollerant of a vehicle than a person on foot. We use DIY window mount tripods and bean bag platforms.