[MDOsprey] Golden Eagle in DC

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This afternoon (Sat., 10/30) I had a little time to squeeze in some
birding, so I went to Georgetown Reservoir to look for hawks.  My
friend, Ottavio Janni (who, unfortunately for DC, is going to work in
Milan) told me that the first week in Nov. is the best time to look for
Golden Eagle in DC.  So I thought I'd give it a try, even though it
didn't seem like a good hawk day.

Well I got to the res. at about 1:45, and a mere 15 minutes later I was
watching a gorgeous Golden Eagle fly over.  But as if that wasn't
enough, while I was watching it, 2 adult Bald Eagles came in and started
harrassing it.  One of them came down hard on the Golden, and they did a
spin, with the Bald losing his composure while the Golden just kept on
going.  The Golden was clearly bigger than the Balds, but not by much. 
My guess is that it was an immature Golden by the amount of white in the
tail (very broad white stripe at the base of the tail), though there
wasn't very much white at the base of the primaries.  It had a wonderful
golden nape.

Over the course of about 1 hour and 45 minutes, I saw (along with
Ottavio, who showed up after I called him about the eagle):

1 Red-tailed Hawk (probably a resident, we saw it several times,
presuming it was the same bird)
2 Red-shouldered Hawks
2 Sharp-shinned Hawks
1 Cooper's Hawk
2 unident. accipters
c.16 Black Vultures
many Turkey Vulture

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Good birding,
Paul Pisano

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