Rough-legged Hawk (lifer #299)

Well, my Mom took me out to Vreeland Rd. again to try to see the Rough-legged Hawk reported yesterday. This has been one of my nemesis birds and I had never seen one even though I am able to drive Vreeland Rd. two or three times a month and have visited the hawk watch at Lake Erie at the right time of year. I started to get worried when I didn't find it in the field near Gotfredson Rd but I found it in the field northeast of the Vreeland- Harris intersection. Its pale head stood out immediately when I first spotted it sitting on the ground for a second or two before it took off and put on a show. I easily saw all of the field marks (black tail band, black carpal patches, white patches at the base of the primaries) as it lazily circled upwards. The sun had just come out from behind the clouds and it was perfectly lit up as well, I wish I could see all of my lifers this well. It then glided across the road and swooped down into the field. After a while it took off again and then started hovering before pouncing in the field again, it then flew off into a tree so I think that it might have caught something that time. Here is the best picture I took of it.

I did check some other spots as well but didn't find much. I dipped on the Mockingbird on Joy Rd. and only found Herring Gulls at Edison Lake and no gulls at all at Visteon. Two Turkey Vultures over the landfills along 275 were the only other birds of note.