Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 21:52:38 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Woodward Subject: Eagle ID Question MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I know that identifying eagles should be simple but I saw one Sunday 28 January that I am still not sure of. I found it flying over McKee-Beshers WMA, Montgomery Co. north of the Horspen Branch Hiker-Biker along the towpath. At first it was just a speck in the distance and I assumed that it was a Turkey Vulture, but when I got the binoculars on it I realized that it was larger in size including the head. The tail also seem proprtional long to the body. It flew in a straight line, then soared briefly before flying off to the WNW. Field marks I noted were the tail which had alternate dark and light(but not white) bands, dark underwings with a small white patch at the base of the feathers between the primaries and secondaries, and a pale colored head. My question for the raptor experts in the group is do bald eagles in any plumage have a striped tail and would they ever have a small white patch in the wings? After studying the various field guides my best guess it that the bird I saw was a subadult Golden Eagle. Any opinions are welcomed. Paul Woodward Fairfax City, VA grackling@worldnet.att.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =======================================================================