Rough-legged Hawk

I decided to drive westwards from the city towards the mountains this afternoon. Though the day started off rather chilly, I discovered that the temperature was warming up nicely. Hardly a sign of snow on the mountains peaks at this eastern edge of the Rockies and just a handful of tiny patches of snow at my destination. Snow will arrive in the city any time now, so I thought this would probably be my last drive westwards till next year. I like to turn off the main Highway 22X along some of the gravel side roads. Endless formations of Canada Geese were flying in the distance and I thought I'd try a few in-flight shots, which I hardly ever try. However, my thoughts turned to this gorgeous Rough-legged Hawk instead. As soon as I had taken a number of shots and watched it fly from tree to tree and circle the fields, I started walking back to my car. I caught a quick glimpse of what looked like some kind of small raptor, probably a Falcon, dive into the field at my side. That, of course, is when two vehicles came speeding along the rough road, churning up a dust storm. I was really lucky when the bird flew up to an electricity pole and I was able to get two blurry, in-flight ID shots. I'll have to check, but I think it might have been a Prairie Falcon, which would be nice.