Ferruginous Hawk

This Hawk was so far away that I almost didn't notice it. A lot of zoom and I ended up with a grainy photo, but hopefully it is enough to get a positive ID. The bird looks large, white front, white face with an eye stripe and the kind of location would be right for a Ferruginous Hawk. A happy sighting if I'm right.

"Wednesday, August 22, 2018, 4:55 PM -Air quality statements blanket parts of western Canada as smoke from the more than 500 wildfires burning in British Columbia coats the region in some of the worst air quality in the world." From the Weather Network. Apparently, this is the smokiest year on record for Calgary!!

As you can tell by the photos I posted this morning, I got out of the forest and into the dry prairies. Two days ago, on 21 August 2018, it turned out to be such a great day, with some much-appreciated sightings. I must have spent about 8 or 9 hours driving and almost every inch of my body aches like crazy. Now, each summer, I try and do two or three longer (for me) drives, making sure I don't lose confidence to get there.

Weather-wise, it was around 24C, so not too hot. Yes, it was still smokey from the British Columbia wildfires, making distant hills barely visible and deleting mountains from view, but it didn't have too much effect on closer photography.

It was a good day for Hawks, seeing three on the way south and a few on the way home. I almost missed two immature Red-tailed Hawks, as the hay bale they were standing on was way out in a large field. At first, I thought there were three hawks together, but when I stopped to take a few photos, I realized that there were only two - one looked almost like two hawks close together, but then I saw that it had its wings mantled. I guess it wanted to make sure that the second hawk behind it couldn't steal any of the food from it.

A Horned Lark, a Western Meadowlark juvenile, and an unidentified sparrow gave me the chance for a photo or two. I probably would have seen more if I had driven a lot of back roads, but this was such a long drive, there just was not time.