Hi All -
I know this is going to sound crazy but I am pretty certain of what I saw and
hope someone else will see it and get pictures. I was sitting on my front
porch looking at the sky out over Lake Smith wondering why the crows were all
riled up somewhere close and saw floating over above me an all dark bird with
its wings in a slight dihedral. I picked up my binoculars since it was
directly overhead and not too high and looked at the bird that I assumed would
be a Turkey Vulture though it didn’t look quite right since with naked eye I
could see the head looked a little larger than expected and was the dark color
of the body, as well as seeing with naked eye that it had prominent yellow legs
against its dark body. As I looked at the bird from underneath with binocs, I
thought “Wow! That is some crazy speckling on the body and breast and the close
to body inner underwing.” It looked like someone had pointed a spray paint gun
at the body of the bird and covered it quickly with white dots that were
evenly spread over the area and against the rest of the dark body that had a
brownish cast to it. The speckling was really distinct and I had no idea what
the bird was having never seen anything like it before. It had a longish tail
that was kept folded as it flew in the slight dihedral in circles and then
across the lake toward Thoroughgood. On the folded tail I could see just one
thick inner band of lighter color and then the thick outer terminal dark band.
I knew that Zone-tailed Hawks looked like Turkey Vulture in flight and manner
and flew with them often in their normal habitats but since I didn’t see the
thin banding of the tail that I expected, I began to think of other all dark
birds even though at first glance it looked more like the size of TV, so I
considered an eagle like a Golden Eagle since it was flying in a dihedral and
then discounted due to the size of the bird and the speckling being so distinct
and symmetrical and obviously it seemed to me to be an important field mark.
I watched it soar and also saw it do a wing tuck and dive which didn’t look
very Turkey Vulture like. I remembered that earlier today while nailing down
the location of the young Mississippi Kite (as well as an adult and subadult)
over the Aragona/Sullivan/Ferry Plantation area of VA BEACH, that I had been
watching a Kite, two Turkey Vulture, two Cooper’s Hawks and a Black Vulture
against the horizon and had noticed one of the supposed Turkey Vultures
suddenly tuck its wings and do a steep stoop down to the treeline and I had
thought, “interesting I have never seen a TV dive like that, it was kind of
like a Kite dive” in reading about the Zone-Tailed Hawk which is often
mistaken or assumed to be a Turkey vulture, I read that they will fly with
vultures and suddenly do low to the ground quick drop stoops to surprise their
prey (birds, small reptiles and mammals). Maybe that was the same bird and it
is sticking around the area for the day.
I saw the bird well and watched it for a good amount of time. I can only say,
I think it was an immature Zone-tailed Hawk due to those crazy speckles.
Hopefully someone else will see this bird and get some photos since it is not
supposed to be here and I almost think I imagined it! Kites really weren’t
supposed to be here either though, so you never know. If anyone has other
ideas or an encounter with a similar bird, please let me know.
Tracy Tate
VA Beach
