[CT Birds] any osprey yet?

[Peregrine Information Consultants]

Hi Bill,

I did see the bird at fairly close range - I would say 150 feet - it flew over my backyard, and I was sitting at the window. It was not a Harrier -- too big. Wingspan at least 5-6ft, fairly slow wingbeat though it was flying straight on. I have seen gazillions of Osprey and many many Eagles so I feel confident of the size. My first thought was "young Eagle" - though it was mostly in silhouette, I did think I saw mottling beneath. 

I think I'll informally ID it as a young eagle, though the report of an Osprey in Tarrytown is intriguing, isn't it?

I appreciate the many replies, on and off list, to my question. Isn't birding fun? :-)

Sarah

-----Original Message-----
From: Boletebill [mailto:boletebill at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2008 04:50 PM
To: ctbirds at lists.ctbirding.org
Subject: [CT Birds] any osprey yet?

A couple of thoughts about Sarah's osprey post "Any Osprey yet?"...
   
     The first thought is something that all of us do and it's this:  We all sometimes confound the perception of size because we misconstrue distance.  Every weekend for the past two or three weeks on the CT River eagle trips we have multiple people shout out "Osprey".  The bird they're seeing is a fourth winter bald eagle that indeed does look very osprey-ish when perched...and when sighted a half mile up the river it looks small enough to be an osprey.
   
      Having said the above my second thought is that Sarah seems to be describing a Harrier in her post of a glimpsed raptor fly-by....long tail, narrow wings, etc....and when Harriers are flying all-out straight-on they tend to seem unHarrier-like for the first few seconds....because we get conditioned to seeing them floating over the marshes.
   
     Just a couple of thoughts.
   
                                                          Bill Yule
                                                          Guilford
   
       


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