I am visiting my father in New Mexico for a few days and went out for an afternoon drive to the Albuquerque Nature Center near the Rio Grande. I wasn't planning to do any serious nature photography on this trip, and had brought 'only' my new Canon S95 pocket camera. Along a lane just before the nature center we found a field surrounded by a wire fence with a surprising number of sandhill cranes and a few canada geese. I walked slowly to the fence and made several photos within a few feet of the cranes without disturbing them. They seemed to be fairly habituated to having people around, and I actually saw more approaching as I walked back to the car after several minutes.
Normally, I would expect to be using a heavy DSLR with 500 mm lens set on a gimbal mount, as well as a second DSLR hand held with a 400 mm lens for 'on the wing' images; but I guess this shows that it isn't always just about the gear when it comes to nature photography.