Hello Tweets,
About 3pm this afternoon I glanced out my living room window and saw a
distant spec circling on the horizon. As I do a couple dozen times most
days, I grabbed my bins and took to get a better view and pretty quickly
realized I needed to step outside to get a better view of this bird.

The first thing that was obvious, was that it soared with its wings held in
dihedral. I actually briefly considered Turkey Vulture until more field
marks became obvious. It had a white band on the upper side of the base of
the tail, and white spots near the ends of the underwings. It also was
obviously longer winged and larger than any buteo. I ran inside to grab my
scope, but by the time I got back out and set it up the bird could not be
relocated. I would've liked to have seen the head size and color, but I
feel I definitely saw enough to confirm it was a Golden Eagle.

Interestingly enough, on 12/14 I had a possible juvenile Golden Eagle in
that same general area, but that bird was not seen well enough to confirm
my suspicions.

The bird was in the vicinity of the base of the north end of Lord Hill.
Some of you might remember this as the location a Gyrfalcon has wintered on
several occasions including winter 2013/2014.

To respond to Sammy Catiis' question yesterday, 2017 was a pretty mixed
year for birding-wise. The bird of my second daughter and a very busy year
at work meant that I probably spent less time birding in 2017 than I have
since I started and had many frustrating dips.

With that said, there were still two major highlights. The first was that
this was my first full calendar year in my current home, which has been
even birdier than I expect when we moved in. I saw or hear 141 bird species
in and around my yard in 2017, with highlights being Sandhill Crane,
Mountain Bluebird, Dusky Flycatcher, and American White Pelican. Today's
Golden Eagle will bring my total list to 146.

My other highlight was a trip to Montana in June where I managed to find
every species I was targeting. Lifers included McCown's Longspur, Mountain
Plover, Sprague's Pipit, Baird's Sparrow, and Pinyon Jay. For anyone
looking for a birding spot you can drive to in a day, I highly recommend
the short-grass prairie of central Montana and the areas around it.

Josh Adams
Cathcart, WA