Bald Eagles in Framingham!

First of all, I want to introduce the amazing photographer that captured the photos in this post and was generous enough to let me display them. His name is Terry, and his collection can be seen here. I guarantee you will be blown away when you see what he can do with a camera! Thank you, Terry.

Soaring Bald Eagle 01 matte, originally uploaded by vidterry.

BIG NEWS!
I have confirmed that it was a Bald Eagle I saw over route 9 last Thursday. Four factors convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt:
First, I had a second sighting.
Second, I had three Framingham residents report seeing a Bald Eagle in the same area recently.
Third, someone very familiar with Bald Eagles reported a DEFINITE sighting over the Mass Pike in Framingham on Sunday (reported via twitter).
Fourth, and most convincing, was confirmation from MassWildlife biologist Tom French that at least one Bald Eagle is known to be living in or around the Framingham reservoirs, and there have been frequent confirmed sighting there recently. Mr. French was certain that the bird I described to him (5 to 6 foot wingspan, white head, wings held flat when soaring, able to do barrel rolls and tumble out of the sky only to save himself at the last second) HAD TO BE A BALD EAGLE

Good Fishing, originally uploaded by vidterry.

SECOND SIGHTING
Friday April 10
My second sighting was much more "up close and personal"than the first. The first clue to his presence was when something blocked out the sun for a few seconds - long enough to know it was big. I saw something GIANT circling overhead and beginning a descent. He "banked" east at the aqueduct, and I lost sight of him for a second. Thinking he might have landed, I grabbed the camera and ran after him. I tried not to make any noise that would startle him , but being stealthy has never been one of my strong points. I was crashing through leaves and trees with all the subtlety and silence of a wounded water buffalo.

At the edge of the forest, I saw him soaring directly over the aqueduct. He was fifty feet away from me, and he was flying low, right under the tree line at most. My instinctual reaction to the sheer, unimaginable size of the bird was to "hit the deck" or run away. It was scary! The bird looked like a prehistoric predator. His wingspan was at least six feet across, maybe more. He was close enough for me to see that his wings were absolutely flat as he soared . I could also see the fingers at the end of the wings, and I once again noted the "squareness" of his wings; so rectangular that I was reminded of a board of wood.

His head was white, and his body was dark, but I was surprised to see that there were light speckles on his belly and on the leading edge of the wings. The markings were similar to those on the bird pictured above. This is evidently an indication that the bird is a young adult (age 5) or even a "pre-adult" (age 4). The juvenile plumage is not completely gone until the bird is at least five years old.


019 Homeward Bound, No Worries.., originally uploaded by vidterry.

FLIGHT PATTERNS

Flying sideways across the sky was probably NOT intentional. The eagle was blown across the sky by a gust of wind, and he simply made no attempt to "face front." Standing up in the air and flapping hard, on the other hand, is the normal and necessary reaction to suddenly losing a gust of wind or thermal current. The bird pictured above is doing the same kind of flapping that I saw over rte 9.

011 Literally Heading In For The Kill, originally uploaded by vidterry.

Barrel rolls and tumbling from the sky are both typical courtship behaviors for Bald Eagles. MassWildlife biologist Tom French said it is a bit late for courtship, and there was only one bird, so there was no need for a courtship ritual. However, Bald Eagles have both these behaviors in their repertoire, and might use them if a gust of wind knocked them off balance or something

CONCLUSION

I am very happy to have solved this mystery and confirmed my sighting of a Bald Eagle. Everyone who insisted I had really seen a Turkey Vulture had statistics on their side, but they hadn't seen what I saw. The bird I saw was an acrobat! It was spinning and diving and doing amazing maneuvers that I've never, ever seen. The Turkey Vultures that I've seen aren't that athletic, and why should they be?. They eat carrion. They don't hunt. It was not an Osprey, either. It didn't look like an Osprey or fly like one, and I know and like Ospreys.

I won't ever tell anyone how many hours I spent staring at the sky with camera in hand so I could prove I had indeed seen a Bald Eagle in Framingham. That was a stupid approach. I am a horrible photographer. Even if i had a stuffed eagle as a model, I would need to take 100 pictures to capture a single usable image. I could never photograph a moving eagle soaring over my head at 90 mph.

As it turns out, it wasn't necessary to take a picture. A lot of people know there are Bald Eagles in Framingham, and they know you can sometimes see a Bald Eagle flying over Route 9 or the Mass Pike. If you look for one long enough, you'll see one. I did.

How can anyone deny that this is the coolest place to live, right?

MORE BIG NEWS
MassWildlife suspect there is a nesting pair of Bald Eagles somewhere on one of the reservoirs. (The fact that I saw only one Bald Eagle would fit with the theory that there is an active nest, since the female Bald Eagle would be sitting on the eggs right now). If there is a nest, it is VERY BIG and located high up in a White Pine tree. The Pine boughs offer good camouflage for Bald Eagle's nests. If everything goes well, the chicks will hatch in early May. After that, you will see the male AND female Bald Eagles out hunting in order to keep up with the demands of their hungry chicks.

THIS LINK will take you to a live video feed of a Bald Eagle's nest full of hungry (or sleepy)fledgelings. It is amazing.

Bald Eagle? Turkey Vulture? Pterodactyl?

I was up half the night researching birds of prey, looking for something that would help me ID the bird I saw yesterday. I thought it was a Bald Eagle because of it's shape and coloring, but I knew that was unlikely. It turns out, however, that there have been plenty of confirmed sightings of Bald Eagles right where I saw him. This bird flew differently than anything I've seen before, so I thought I could use it's flight pattern to ID him. It turns out that Bald Eagles do some of the weird things I saw this bird doing, and few other birds share this behavior. Nothing I've read so far eliminates the possibility of a Bald Eagle sighting in the middle of Framingham. On the other hand, it's just too crazy to be true - isn't it?

Maybe I should just report the facts. I was at the Mobil-to-go station on Route 9 and Maynard Street at about 5:00 PM on March 9th, 2009. I looked up and saw a HUGE bird circling upwards. It was smoothly and steadily flapping it's ENORMOUS wings. You could see how powerful his wings were by the speed of his ascent. Before long he disappeared from sight. I went into the store thinking I had seen either a Turkey Vulture or a Great Blue Heron. (I know they don't look alike, but at that point I hadn't seen much. I was going by size alone - and the fact that I have seen both species in the area before).

When I came out, I looked around and saw him as a little speck on the horizon to the north. He wasn't flapping anymore, just soaring in a circle. All of a sudden he began moving towards me, still riding the wind, but moving SIDEWAYS across the sky. He wasn't flapping or wavering or anything; he was motionless and the wind was taking him across the sky sideways. (I know how that sounds, but I swear to god it's true. I never saw anything like it, either)

In a few seconds he was almost directly above me, and I knew this was no Great Blue Heron. I mean, my mind was trying to make him into a Great Blue with his neck pulled in, but there was absolutely no way. There was no neck pulled in, no legs trailing, no long beak, and he was not even close to being blue. But the SIZE of those wings was unbelievable. I noted the "fingers" and the fact that the wings were not dihedral at all, and then he passed directly over me and I saw that his head was white, and the rest of his body was very dark brown or black. And his wingspan was at least five feet across.
Right after he crossed over route 9, he must have lost the wind. He had to pull back and he flapped his wings hard a few times to stay in the air. A second later he was "flat winged floating" again, headed for Framingham State. (Here is where it gets interesting) He then FLIPPED AROUND (like he was a supersonic jet doing a "barrel roll"), was UPSIDE DOWN for one second, and then FELL RIGHT OUT OF THE SKY!!!! He just tumbled down in a mess of feathers, somersaulting over and over, headed for certain death! I lost sight of him on the way down, just for a second while he was behind the roof of the gas station. My eyes were glued to the spot where he should have reappeared . . .but he never did.

Evidently he managed to save himself just in the nick of time.

That's the story. It is 100% true and I was stone cold sober when it happened.

A huge bird flew sideways across the sky, stood in mid-air flapping giant wings, flipped over until it was flying upside down, and then tumbled out of the sky and disappeared. And this all happened during rush hour on a busy street that's smack dab in the center of the biggest town in the country.

to be continued.