I've spent a lot of time with bird books, charts and online photos before
deciding to make the report of a possible Golden Eagle at Dam 8 on the
Kentucky Rive while paddling with 5 others on Saturday, 8/16, and without
my good camera and lens. So, no photos.
Dam 8 location:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kentucky+River+Lock+and+Dam+8/@37.7491575,-84.5884885,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x8842f33fad25bef7:0xeaba01061d047f02
<https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kentucky+River+Lock+and+Dam+8/@37.7491575,-84.5884885,14z/data=%214m2%213m1%211s0x8842f33fad25bef7:0xeaba01061d047f02>
The view of the bird was was uncommon (not the usual looking up at a
soaring bird) as it was it flying out of a tree, low over water and then
slowly rising over a hill in front of us with a tree covered hill
background. First sighting is estimated at not more than 1/8 of a mile.
All I could see was a top view of its tail, back and wings. Wing beat was
very even and easy. Smooth even feathers at trailing edge. What really
struck me was a rich brown almost rufous rump/upper tail with darker tail
tip and rich, dark brown back and wings. No white visible on tail or
wings. Dark rich brown all over. I never saw its head due to the angle. I
never saw the underside of the bird. The bird flew over the hill then
reappeared briefly as it crossed the river and flew over another hill. At
the same time as it crossed the river several vultures flew in on the lower
side of the dam and it made no effort to join them as they caught a
thermal.
When I saw the bird I began checking off what it wasn't.....not a vulture
shape, color or wing beat, much too large and not the right shape for a
hawk. In my mind, it was obviously an Eagle. I had it down to the more
obvious juvi Bald Eagle with my gut saying that was close but something not
quite right (not white in tail) and starting to think a Golden? As I was
working through this another kayaker called out "Eagle.....maybe a
Golden". None of them are strong birders but 3 (1 plus a couple) of them
have seen Golden Eagles.
This is the closest photo I can find that matches what I saw but straight
from th rear:
https://www.google.com/search?q=top+view+of+Golden+Eagle+in+flight&client=firefox-a&hs=rX7&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ZsbvU6S2JeLE8AGpsYHQAw&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=665#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=KeyRQ2L-ZNq_iM%253A%3BVHWYMiHnMrfeFM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblogs.exploratorium.edu%252Fwhyintercept%252Ffiles%252F2012%252F03%252FGolden-Eagle.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblogs.exploratorium.edu%252Fwhyintercept%252F2012%252F03%252F04%252Fbrain-traces%252F%3B597%3B421
<https://www.google.com/search?q=top+view+of+Golden+Eagle+in+flight&client=firefox-a&hs=rX7&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ZsbvU6S2JeLE8AGpsYHQAw&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=665#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=KeyRQ2L-ZNq_iM%253A%3BVHWYMiHnMrfeFM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblogs.exploratorium.edu%252Fwhyintercept%252Ffiles%252F2012%252F03%252FGolden-Eagle.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fblogs.exploratorium.edu%252Fwhyintercept%252F2012%252F03%252F04%252Fbrain-traces%252F%3B597%3B421%E2%80%8B>
At home my final comparison was the 1st year Bald Eagle or a 2nd year or
mature Golden Eagle. The clear difference is that, in my experience, the
juvi Bald clearly has visible white in its tail which brings me back to a
Golden as there was clearly no white.
I found this chart helpful.
http://friendsofthebosque.org/articles/Identifying_the_Sub-Adult_B.pdf
http://friendsofthebosque.org/articles/Identifying_the_Sub-Adult_B.pdf
Ebird shows Golden Eagle sightings all around Lexington but mostly juvi
birds and seen in the winter/early spring.
We talked about the sighting very little as we had paddled 6 miles and had
7 miles of paddling ahead of us and were too spread out for good
conversations but I did email each and ask them to describe what they saw.
The only leading question I asked was did it have any white anywhere on the
bird. Amazingly, their descriptions match what I saw very closely. No
one saw any white on the bird and all spoke of a very large and dark bird.
They all have seen plenty of Vultures.
This bird has chosen a very inaccessible portion of the Kentucky River. It
is 6 miles from John Nickell Ramp to the upper side of the dam. The lower
side would be Camp Nelson (4 miles) but those ramps have not been
maintained and were full of mud and debris as of June. High Bridge would
be the next at 22 miles. The dam is under construction and I'm guessing
that the road to the dam is fenced off due to the construction.
Tina Nauman
Lexington, KY
