I have been looking for wintering hawks for a few years now and it is still
as much fun as it was that first winter. This winter was no different even with a lack of snow. The numbers of hawks and variety seemed fairly normal. I had Kestrels, Red-tailed hawks and Rough-legged hawks all in the usual places for the most part. Northern Harriers were here all winter, mostly males of the gray ghost variety and a couple of juveniles. A few Coopers and Sharp-shins plus some Peregrine Falcons, plenty of Bald Eagles and whats not to like about winter hawk watching. I found the ratio of dark morph to light morph Rough-legged hawks interesting , Normally on any given winter day you might see 1 or 2 dark morphs, 1 of the very light morph and 6 or so normal light morph rough legs. But this year I had 3 to 4 dark morphs and 6 to 9 light morph rough-legs. I only found one very light morph all winter.(see bellow) I found this Rough-legged hawk to be very interesting because of the absents of the dark tail band like on the rough-legged bellow it, both are light morphs. It looks as if this light morph is a very lightly marked type Rough-legged hawk which I think is somewhat unusual marking for these hawks. I just found out that this bird could be a juvinale, to see page 329 (lower left image) in Raptors of Eastern North America by Brian K Wheeler
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Good birding.
Pete
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Good Birding!
We watched for about half hour as the swallows gathered nest building materials. The Cliff Swallows just pickup mud in their beaks and flew off with it. ( image bellow Cliff Swallow with beak full of mud)
The Barn Swallows however carried hay to the muddy tire tracks in the barn yard most of which had water in them after the rain, where they would wet the hay . ( tree swallow wetting piece of hay for nest. I think they do this to make the hay/grass soft to work with)
Then they would then added mud to the mixed load of nesting materials and fly off. This scene was repeated over and over again with some copulations throne in for good measure every now and then.
Ahhhh spring!
and a Canadian Swallowtail plus two West Virginia Whites. There was one that would not hold still long enough to ID. I thought it could have been a Juvenal's Duskywing. We'll see what I find when to go back tomorrow to spend more time looking around. There was also many dragonflies and damselflies moving in the warm afternoon air.
Bill and his son had to leave, I stayed and kept birding the area. here is a list for today:
Kestrel 2 
Morning Dove 7 
Turkey Vulture lit by warm afternoon sunlight. We didn't stick around to try and locate the roost, instead raced ahead to try and find a good location for the sunset. (see header) while there watching the TV's 3 Ravens chased a Redtail hawk out of their territory. 
Once the Redtail was safely out of their territory the Ravens broke off the chase. ( note the full crop on this red-tail, white lump at base of neck full of its last meal)
Here is the list of birds and mammals for the day:
Northern Harrier 1 male(Gray Ghost )
Tree Swallows
and at Ft Cassin had a young muskrat come right up to me crying as if look for its parents .
Good Birding
We found 14 eagles spread all around the area. The most interesting part was finding 5 juveniles and one adult on the ice south of the river outlet fighting over a fish. One juvenile managed to hold off the others with lots of wing flapping displays.
But after about ten minutes of defending its fish the larger adult (female probable) moved in and took the prize uncontested.
It was also a good day for hawks, here is the only image I got of the light morph Rough-legged Hawk that I found in a field south of Richville rd and rt 22a Shoreham VT. I think that it is a adult male but would love some input from others about this beautiful Rough-legged Hawk. 
here is what we found yesterday from ft Cassin Vergennes down Rt 22a to Rt 4 Fair Haven Vermont.