I thought I give it a try again today and went back to the same location as yesterday. Sure enough, the Rough-legged Hawk was present again, this time perched in a tree, a little further away from the road. They are known to perch sometimes on very slender branches on top of a tree and I have watched this behavior at the dark morph of a Rough-legged Hawk lately at a different location. This time the bird waited for me and gave me a few seconds to make some clicks before she flew away. You can see how the feathers cover her whole legs. The name “Rough-legged” refers to that. In North America only Golden Eagles, the Ferruginous Hawk, and the Rough-legged Hawk have feathers all the way down to their toes. We expect another snow storm tomorrow and I wonder sometimes how these birds manage to survive these often brutal weather conditions…