ENORMOUS Bird At The Pond ..

[TAWhatley]

I was coming around the far side of the duck pond today when all the water birds went into panic mode and ran/flew to the water and the pigeons, gulls, and crows took off like little feathered rockets. Usually that means there is a dog running loose in the park or children spooked the birds. Then I saw IT. This truly ENORMOUS bird swooped down, grabbed a Coot, and flew to a branch of a pine tree. There was a lady much closer than I was and she was screaming and waving her arms. The HUGE bird dropped the Coot and took off. When I got around the pond, I picked up the Coot and examined it. The Coot was not injured but was in shock for about 10 or 15 minutes before it started to function normally again. The BIG bird had to have been an eagle of some type .. I can't even begin to adequately describe how big it was. I've never seen an eagle anywhere in the local area, but I'm sure this was one. I think I was just about as shocked as the poor Coot.

Mama Mallard was down to only three ducklings today ..

Terry

[Lovebirds]

WOW!! Glad the coot was ok. Too bad you couldn't get a picture.
That's sad about the babies but I guess you can't do a whole lot. Nature is a wonderful thing in the BIG scheme of things, but it sure sucks sometimes.........

[LokotaLoft]

yeah I have to agree with you on that , awesome sure can suck the life out of the big picture sometimes do you think it was snapping turtles taking the wee ones thats just the worst thing ever whatever it is

[TAWhatley]

The ducklings get taken by hawks, crows, herons, large fish, large turtles, and the occasional human. There really isn't a whole lot that can be done as these are state/federally protected birds. For SURE, if any domestics hatch there, they are gone to my place in a heartbeat as I know they cannot survive at the pond as babies no matter how good/diligent their parents are.

I'm still shocked at the sight of that huge bird ..

Terry

[feralpigeon]

Sounds like one big bird Terry. I'm sure you must have been shocked to see it there as were the resident birds and animals.

A few years back in SF, a worker at a facility told me about a bird that he'd sighted in the Tenderloin area on Eddy St. that was a couple of feet tall and I thought he was telling a tale. Low and behold, about a week later I saw the bird he was talking about on a fire escape eating a baby pigeon while the parents watched helplessly on the sidelines. The bird was the largest hawk I think I've ever seen and was about 2 feet in height.

I saw the bird again on the roof of the building accross the street from the building where I'd had the first sighting. I swear, I've never seen a bird so huge and it was remarkable to see this very special hawk in the Tenderloin of all places just hangin'. I saw the bird a total of three times within a very short time of each sighting. The only thing I could figure this bird to be was a Ferruginous Hawk, the largest in North America. There were just no other pictures and descriptions that I could find that fit the amazing hawk that I saw.

http://www.conservationcentre.org/scase4.html

http://www.conservationcentre.org/ferrpix.html

http://www.ggro.org/ferruginous.html

http://www.mikids.com/LC/ferruginoushawk.htm

Wouldn't seem as though you'd see them in this area, but they are sighted from Hawk Hill. Course, maybe it was something else, but seeing was definitely believing for myself and several others in that neighborhood who couldn't believe our eyes.

fp

[TAWhatley]

Amazing, FP! The bird today might have been one of these hawks. I know for sure the wing span was more than six feet and the body was huge. Thanks for the links to those pics!

Terry

[mr squeaks]

Far out question: Could it have been a CONDOR?

[TAWhatley]

Originally Posted by mr squeaks

Far out question: Could it have been a CONDOR?

I don't think so, Shi .. the head didn't look anything like a Condor head. It was more hawk or eagle looking. FP may have zeroed in on what it was. I'm still searching the internet for pictures of ferruginous hawks and also golden eagles .. though I can clearly "see" the image of the bird in my mind, I'm not doing too well on matching it up to the pictures I am looking at. I can clearly remember seeing "stripes" in the wing feathers as those humongo wings spread out to fly away.

Anyway .. it was an awesome bird to see and since no little lives were lost to it, I'm OK with it having paid a passing visit .. wouldn't like it to become a regular there at the pond, though.

Terry

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi Terry,

Definitely sounds like a golden eagle to me. Golden eagles are actually more related to hawks than the true eagles are. They also take more animals and birds than a bald eagle for example, would. Their body length is more than 3 feet (36-40 inches) long, wing span is as you estimated and probably in the 7-7.5 foot range. If there were stripes in the wing feathers, then it was probably an immature bird.

Must have been a sight to see such a large bird for sure! I see turkey vultures around here occasionally and they look huge in flight. However, they are not the size of a golden eagle. They are about 30 inches long, with a winspan of about 6 feet.

[george simon]

TERRY, You just may have been lucky enough to see a BALD EAGLE or a GOLDEN EAGLE I do feel that it was a juvenile Bald Eagle it takes 3 years before they get the white head and tail.While they are fish eaters they will take a duck. Bald Eagles are a coastal bird and lakes and rivers as there primary food are fish. While the Golden Eagle tends to be a bit more inland as they go after small mammals.they also have large territories up to 60 square miles. .GEORGE

[naturegirl]

Could it have been a turkey vulture? They are enormous and bigger than an Eagle. We have them by the groves here in Michigan and they are huge.

Cindy

[Trees Gray]

Wow Terry,

How awesome yet frightful that sight must have been. I'm glad the Coot survived.

My husband and I actually saw a bald eagle here, down one of our rural quiet side streets last Saturday. We couldn't believe it as we looked up and it was soaring and a perfect display of huge wings.

We know it was not an Ospray as we see them quite often in the same area, and they have a big nest there.

I'm so sorry to hear about the baby ducklings.

[Larry_Cologne]

Hello Terry and all,

I have seen a black house cat at our city botanical garden (the Flora, next to the Cologne zoo) several times a few years ago. It went after the ducklings, and I know that it once caught a young water chicken (or common moorhen, or gallinule). Had to look this up at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Moorhen

They are blackish in color, have big feet and walk over lily pads. The young one was a bit out of sight of the mother, who would call for it every so often. From a distance I saw the cat stalking, and a few minutes the later the highly distraught mother was dashing around, calling for its chick.

The Flora does not have cat-proof fencing, and is closed to the public before dark. If the cat's owners were aware that their cat was eliminating the small visiting population of ducks and water chickens, they would probably not let it out, or only after dark.

If you see one of those big birds again, and they start to hang around your park, better get yourself a veggie costume for a disguise. I think i would dress as an onion. I'm sure raptors don't go for onions.

Larry

[TAWhatley]

Thanks for all the additional information everyone. Whatever the bird was, it was quite a sight to see.

Larry .. good suggestion about the costume Our American Coots are also members of the rail family and are quite interesting little birds.

Terry

[feralpigeon]

I should add to my story here. When I saw that huge bird eating the babies
that I'd been following in that nest, I jumped up and down and screamed like
a Banshee to get the bird to stop. Much to my surprise, the bird looked at me
and abruptly stopped what it was doing and took flight, an unbelievable show
in itself.

I was surprised and confused by this because being three stories up with
no fire escape available for me to even climb up on the ground floor to reach this bird on the
third floor, it could have easily ignored me. It didn't and at first I thought maybe it was part of the "raptor program" in SF, but subsequently, I read that the only predator for the Ferruginous Hawk is man itself. Maybe this is why the bird left it's unfinished meal behind.

Not saying this is what you saw, Terry, but I did want to follow up w/this
aspect as it has always stayed w/me as being surreal.

fp