BIRDWATCHING -- The big rough-legged hawks Inland Northwest birders are used to seeing perched on power poles along roadways during winter seem to be in short supply this season.

In some years it's been common to see a the eagle-like hawks on almost every other telephone pole along Mount Spokane Road or I-90 in areas such as Tarkio as they look for rodents.

But this year, while the numbers seem lean in some areas, they seem more abundant in others, such as near Moscow Mountain, where eagle-eyed birder Terry Gray  of Moscow spotted eight in a short drive Wednesday morning, "and one was in my yard."

The bird generously posed for the photo above.