Yay, it's Friday and my sister is here with her family and two dogs for the weekend. The cats are nervous and are both hiding under my bed. For the longest time they were curled up side by side, which is the closest they've hung out together yet. Great progress and hopefully soon they'll willingly snuggle together. My family and I are having fun, we had pizza for dinner and played Uno flip. What a great twist on Uno. If you haven't tried it, you should.

Every night I scroll through pics to find one for the blog and I realize that I sure do have a lot of photos to choose from. Tonight I figured I would go with a Northern Harrier as this is the time of year I get to see them. In fact, every time I go to the grasslands I see them. The shot I'm sharing today is from the grasslands a few years ago. It was a beautiful, sunny winter day and this harrier flew by me several times, giving me great opportunities to photograph it. The harriers are often very cooperative at the grasslands and the running joke between my friends is.... "it's just a harrier". Meanwhile, we all wish it were a short-eared owl flying in so close.

Northern Harrier's are known as a marsh hawk or a ring-tailed hawk. they breed in Canada and the most northern parts of the United States. In the winter they migrate south and will go as far as the southern parts of the United States, Mexico, and Central America. Their hunting patterns are very similar to their competitor, the short-eared owl. They will fly low to the ground and their diets consist of rodents, small birds, insects, and reptiles. 

Here is a shot I got of one with the beautiful blue sky as a backdrop.

Northern HarrierA northern harrier in flight at the Shawangunk Grasslands in Wallkill, NY. This image was taken by Debbie Quick from Debs Creative Images.