January+over 50 degrees=Awesome!

I took a little jaunt this afternoon to see if I could grab a few species that I needed for the year in Kansas and in the county.  My main targets were Rough-legged Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, and Northern Shrike.  The thing about these birds is that if you don't have a bird staked out, you basically drive around in appropriate habitat.  It can be fun, but it can be tedious, too.
As I drove out of town, I noticed a medium-sized woodpecker dive into a coniferous tree.  "Sapsucker!" I thought to myself.  I made a u-turn, glassed the tree, and sure enough...sapsucker.
Next I made a stop by the creek east of US-183.  As I drove along the road that skirted the creek, I heard some screeching.  I stepped out of the car and was surprised to see 14 of the following birds:

                          One of 14 Rusty Blackbirds perched in trees next to the creek

I then headed to Rooks County Fishing Lake.  I didn't really think I would see any of the target species at the lake, but my dog, Gracie, needed to run around, and the lake is always nice to see.  As I was on the roads headed to the lake, I saw a Buteo soaring over some of the agricultural fields.  I got out of the car and saw the bird clearly in my binocs: Rough-legged Hawk.  Sometimes it just pays to be lucky!
I got to the lake and took a walk with Gracie.  I didn't see anything too spectacular: a couple of Spotted Towhees, a plethora of Harris's and American Tree Sparrows, and quite a few ducks in the small open area on the lake.  I also happened to get a nice view of this beaut:

I know the pic isn't great, but what you're looking at is a female Northern Harrier without a tail!

I don't know what happened to this bird, but you can let your imagination run wild: maybe it got attacked by a Ferruginous or a Red-tailed, or maybe things got a little wild when it was with its mate.  I don't know.
After Gracie was good and tired, I took to the country roads looking for Ferruginous Hawks or Northern Shrikes.  Unfortunately, I didn't get either of those, but I did see a few things worth mentioning:
1.  I got my first Lapland Longspurs in Rooks for the year, a flock of ~100 birds doing their usual lifting off as a group while managing to look like a big flock of individual birds.
2.  I saw a Prairie Falcon perched on a hay bale.

3.  I happened to catch a Great-horned Owl out of the corner of my eye.  It happened to be perched out in the relative open, right above a group of 100+ turkeys...they didn't seem too perturbed.

4.  I also got to see the largest flock of blackbirds I have seen.  Kansas is kinda notorious for its winter blackbird flocks.  I've seen some decent ones up to this point, but I saw a flock today that was easily 100,000 birds strong.

5.  Finally on my way back into town, I got to see the small group of Great-tailed Grackles that have been hanging around Stockton.  They are pretty rare this far north in winter.  In fact we got a group of 11 birds during the Webster CBC, the first birds of this species for the history of Webster CBC.

I'm now over 80 species for Rooks for the year and close to 85 for Kansas for the year.  When I first planned the year out, I think I had a goal of ~65 birds for January.  Ummmmm...cut me some slack; it's my first winter in Kansas!