A few weeks ago, I was watching this dark morph Rough-legged Hawk hunting on the corner of Oakwood Rd and Pennsylvania Ave. It was sitting in perfect light, eye level and just putting on a show! This stunning bird provided the best experience I ever had with a Rough-legged Hawk. It went down to the ground three times trying for mice or voles. It caught one and missed two. I missed the photos of it catching one, because the grass was in the way. There wasn’t much to it though, as it flew down grabbed it and swallowed it. It happened really fast, and it flew back up to a small Oak tree. On the two misses, it flew down and then hopped around in the snow trying to get its prey as it moved around, under the snow. I’m guessing either a field mouse or a vole. After each miss, it would return to the top of a small Oak tree, which there were several of in the field. This all happened about 50′-150′ away from the road. I watched this particular hawk for about 30 minutes. Photos below are from Saturday 1/20. Enjoy!
