Saw my first roughleg of the winter on Friday. Here.

And yes, I know the real name for that species is "rough-legged hawk," but I don't call them that. Any more than I call their cousins, the redtail hawks, the "red-tailed hawks". Nor have I begun hyphenating "sage-grouse." Except in my professional writings. As far as I am concerned, the American Ornithologist's Union has gone way overboard on their use of hyphens in naming bird species.

Although it makes sense with the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

But roughlegs are a true harbinger of winter. Not fall or autumn. Winter. That is when those northern migrants arrive and stay in our country.

Hard to believe with the 60+ degree temperatures we've been having this weekend.

I was on my way home from Lander, having borrowed the region's fur and skull collections, when I spotted the roughleg swooping over the greasewood along the highway. And spotted a second roughleg on a powerpole at Lamont. Despite what the temperatures have been, winter is coming.

Supposed to be snow on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll be home before then (take off early tomorrow for two days in Feral Horse Town, just a few dozen miles east of Whinybutt).

When I pulled into our Lander office, the regional boss was out in the parking lot, maneuvering a forklift. (Does your boss know how to run a forklift?) He had a wooden pallet impaled on the forks, creating a platform.

And on that platform was.... one roll of paper towels.

I began our conversation by pointing out that, you know, most people just pick up the roll and carry it under their arm.

Mind you, this was the first face-to-face conversation we have had in over two months. And I did not bother saying hello first.

According to him, only I would make that observation.

Turns out he and my boss were preparing to replace the burned out bulbs in the parking lot lights. And using a forklift for a platform was easier and safer than using a long ladder. Paper towels were for cleaning the glass.

Oookay.

Of course, the real question here is "why were two administrators out here doing manual labor?" One could hypothesize that they knew that all their minions were much too busy to take on this task.

You could also hypothesize that they did not consider any of their minions capable of doing this technical work without wiping out a light pole or two.

Or, you could assume this was Friday and these two guys would do anything to get out of the office, away from the telephones and paperwork.

So I just dropped off my reports, picked up the fur and skull boxes for the youth program at Coal Mine Town, and headed for home.