A field full of raptors

Had an abbreviated but wonderful field trip today out to the farm fields along Purgatory Road near Goshen, NY. As soon as we turned off Sarah Wells Trail, we were greeted by several Northern harriers of both sexes working the fields. One actually flew within 10 feet of the car as we drove slowly down the blacktop. As pulled over when Sharon noticed a white-breasted bird off in one of the trees in the middle of the field. Out came the spotting scope and soon we had a grand view of a light-morph Rough-legged hawk. Too far out to photograph, the bird still was a sight to behold and posed nicely for a long look. Soon, a dark morph of the same species came flying in, hovered over the field nearby, and then settled down on the wooden fence close to the car. The lighting was terrible, with the bird almost directly between me and the sun. Undaunted, I slowly crept down the road and back to a position where the bird was nicely illuminated. Show time....I got several decent shots of this black beauty. Later, we had close views of Redtails and more harriers. The one disappointment of the afternoon was that one of our target birds for the day, the Short-earred owl, never showed despite our observing until dark. All in all a very enjoyable late afternoon, however.