First one

This morning, when I was returning from taking a bird to the vet, I spotted what is a harbinger of winter. I saw my first Rough-legged Hawk. They only come this far south in the winter when conditions are getting bad above the Arctic Circle where they breed and live all summer. This is a bit early so either the food supply is low up there or the weather has turned beastly.

Now these beautiful birds will be sitting on power poles or fence posts along the highway until about March. You can't miss them, they have a very large dark square at their wrists on the undersides of their wings. And they have a wide white band on the base of their tail. When sitting they don't appear to have a neck, are light colored, for the most part, and have a dark belly band either solid or with some white spotting in it. They do come in a dark morph so don't think it's an eagle sitting there, it may just be a roughie.