Rough-legged Hawk on a hay bale

I don't remember the weather forecast saying that we would be getting snow today, 28 October 2016 - I'm sure it only said rain. Anyway, it's snowing again this morning, with a temperature of 0°C (32°F) and windchill -2°C (28°F).

Usually, I don't have three long day outings within five days, except during the Christmas Bird Counts, but two days ago, I was lucky enough to go with friends, Shirley and Anne, for a day's outing SW and SE of the city.

We had a very early start, 7:00 am, and drove west of the city to start with, driving to the far end of Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66). While at Elbow Falls, we saw a pair of American Dippers flying from rock to rock. They were vocalizing, too, which I had never heard before.

Though there seemed to be very few birds to be seen all day, we were so lucky to see a total of four Moose - two at each of two different locations SW of the city. It is always nice to see a Moose, and to see four in one day was a real treat. The second two were fairly young ones.

From Elbow Falls Trail, we drove down through the Millarville area and finally ended up east of High River. We found one of the Great Horned Owls that everyone had been following earlier in the year, along with a nearby little American Tree Sparrow. We did see a few Hawks, including this very distant Rough-legged Hawk on a hay bale and a very dark morph Hawk later in the day.

A great day, ladies - thank you so much for inviting me along and thanks so much, Shirley, for driving! Greatly appreciated. So glad we didn't have today's weather instead!