Hello Charlotte. Could your mystery raptor have been the missing but now
recovered peregrine falcon from the Woodland Park Zoo? It was recovered
safely, according to the news release, in North Seattle today:

http://www.kirotv.com/news/13425723/detail.html

Best regards,
Edna
Seattle, WA

> On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, Byers wrote:
> Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 10:04:29 -0700
> From: Byers <byers345 at comcast.net>
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: [Tweeters] large raptor ID
> Hello Tweeters, Yesterday, May 31, my husband and I were resting in our
> small backyard about 6 pm, enjoying the shade and scanning the larger
> sky overhead for any birds passing by. We spotted a large raptor quite
> high up and heading generally north. To me, its main characteristics
> were its size (large) an overall impression of brownness, what looked
> like a lighter yellow-brown head and some white in the vicinity of the
> rump/tail. You will all say that this description fits that of a
> first-year Golden Eagle, and that's what I would call it except we are
> talking about north Seattle here. So I am asking, did anyone else
> happen to see this bird cruising north from the Wedgwood-Maple Leaf area
> toward Lake City about 6:15 pm yesterday? Is it possible we could have
> seen a Golden Eagle coasting over Seattle? If not, what else might it
> have been? Thanks in advance for any help.