First thing I thought actually was big hawk. REALLY big. A raven was buzzing it, which ruled out vulture (ravens don’t much care about them). I tried to get as many markings as I could which at the distance wasn’t many. I really didn’t have a frame of reference for this.

I never considered bald eagle seriously; it’s only this year that I saw the first one of them that I have in Shenandoah.

Probable reason for all the above: This eagle isn’t closely related to the bald eagle …but is (at least relatively closer) to the buteo hawks. So: while no, it’s not close enough to a hawk that I’m not laughing at myself now that I ever thought that…well, it’s close enough that the other eagle never entered the conversation, particularly after I got home and compared them.

Still cool though.

I saw a golden eagle in Shenandoah National Park, VA in March 2003. Even though I found later that that is actually quite plausible (a migratory breeding population exists in Quebec), that didn’t matter to me.