Tag: Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

A nice day with decent crowds at Reifel this afternoon. While starting out along the east dyke trail amongst all the regular Black-capped Chickadee,

Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee

… was this Chestnut-backed Chickadee. While it actually landed on my lens at one point, I did not manage to get it in better lighting than this.

With the sunny skies I then headed to the outside dyke and west marsh. There have been a couple of Rough-legged Hawks in this area. One of them came in roosted in a tree, unfortunately there was no clear shot.

Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk

So I waited patiently for it to leave,

Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk

… and managed these shots.

Snowy & Rough-legged

Another great day and I managed to get to a couple of different spots. Not having much luck at the first, I ended the afternoon in Boundary Bay. Seeing the foot of 72 Street was quite busy, I made my way to 64 Street. From there I walked east along the dyke trail. It was looking pretty quiet here as well until I noticed a couple of family groups stopped and looking out into the marsh area. As I got closer I could see there were three Snowy Owls roosting out there.

Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

One of the Snowy Owls was actually not too far off and provided a good photo op. Everyone was enjoying them from the dyke with nobody venturing out to get closer and disturbing them.

Another winter visitor that I have managed to see, but not photograph yet this year is the Rough-legged Hawk. Most of my sightings this winter have been from a distance and never really close enough for photos.

Rough-legged Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk

Late this afternoon that changed with this Rough-legged Hawk roosting atop a tree. A pleasant surprise to get this as I find they are usually quite skittish when people approach. A good end to the day’s outing.