An Eagle hit my house

[Paul B]

Now I live in New York 2 miles outside the city limits and we have a lof of birds here. Mostly pigeons, sparrows, robins and smaller birds.
Anyway I am downstairs in the basement and my wife is upstairs cleaning the windows. All of a sudden I hear her scream. But she screams if she sees a big ant, so I figured it was an ant, beatle, spider etc and I get a rag to kill the thing. I go upstairs and she said something big just hit the house.
I said, what, like a plane (we are on the approach to JFK airport.
She said, no, a bird. Now I live in a stone house so the bird would have to be awfully big for you to hear it inside.
She says go outside, (sure, "I" have to go outside) it is in the gutter on the roof. I go outside and see aquirels running for their life and birds of all kinds flying away making a racket and I was expecting to see Rodan (If you are not into Sci Fy forget about that) This eagle is trying to land in my gutter, but it is to big.
Now I have been in Colorado, Arizona and California so I know what an eagle looks like and this thing was an eagle. I am pretty sure it was an Osprey as we do have some of them on the shore around the Long Island Sound where they eat fish, but I never saw one inland and certainly never on my roof.
So the thing looks at me and takes off, it must have had a wingspan of almost 4'. Very cool and not a Long Island Sight.

 

[rookie07]

Cool!! I hope there was no damage.

 

[Paul B]

Cool!! I hope there was no damage.

To who? My house or the eagle?

 

[krazime]

aww you didnt snap a picture?:Yikes:

 

[ReefFreak1]

Dude as ****** for you as that is. It's really awesome. They are endangered so if that eagle starts a best or home of any type you can't move it until it leaves itself. It's a law :-(. Make sure it doesn't make your roof it's home

 

[KathyC]

True..maybe an osprey..did it have a white belly (if you had time to notice)? Though a Peregrine Falcon would be more likely where you are located.

Perhaps he/she dropped something in your gutter and was trying to pick it back up?

Good to know it was not hurt and was able to fly off on it's own

 

[Paul B]

I think it was an Osprey. They are fairly common near the water in Port Washington, but I have been living here almost 35 years and I never saw one so far inland. It was brownish gray and I think it had a white belly. It was flying away for most of the time I saw it.

Once about 15 years ago I was doing a job in Manhattan on a 60 story building near the Hudson River. We were on maybe the 50th floor and we had the glass out of the window because we were doing an asbestos abatement and we needed to put a fan where the window was. I was standing in the window frame looking out when I saw this huge bird circling. He turned and came in my direction and I figured he was just flying in circles because he didn't know where he was going like a lot of tourists we get in NY. Anyway the thing keeps coming toward me and I am watching thinking he will veer off. Nope, he comes straight for me and when he got about 5' from me, he raised up his wings, which were a good 4 or 5' across, he raised his feet at me and OMG, those talons are huge, and he stopped inches from my face. After I changed my underwear I found out that she has a nest a few floors below and was protecting it. I read about it in the newspaper. Not the part about me, the part about the nest.

 

[ReefFreak1]

That's really cool. They are beautiful birds. There was some type of eagle or rare bird that landed on the window sill of the nyu dorms or classrooms by Washington square park like a year ago. Really amazing to see. Huge birds.

 

[Paul B]

Speaking of birds, I have another bird story if you are interested even though I know this is a fish thread.
I was diving for lobsters off this lighthouse (that was commissioned by George Washington) and about 30' down it is pitch black and all of a sudden something grabbed my head and was smacking me around. It was huge and I was not thrilled.
It had me for maybe 5 very long seconds then let me go. I surfaced and realized it was one of these cormorants that you see on top of the lighthouse. Those things are huge and they swim with their wings unlike ducks that swim with their feet.
They dive for fish and maybe thought I was a tuna, or more likely, a blowfish.
I think it was that shifty looking one on the chimney, the one with the scowl on his face.


On top of the lighthouse

Next to the lighthouse

 

[MIKE NY]

Paul ..we do have alot of Birds of Prey in our area, so it's not surprising you saw one on your house....I always see Hawks and Falcons over my house..I live by the Golf course. Also believe it or not I've seen Bald Eagles in our area too..LI is enroute of their migration path...I've seen plenty of them at Orchard Beach and in Pelham Bay Park by the water in the Bronx early spring and late fall. We currently have a nesting couple of Hawks at St John's U. ..three young ones just jumped out of the nest the other day.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Ospreys are quite common now, and I have seen them get into misadventures with people's houses. Peregrine falcons are unlikely....they feed on birds (mainly pigeons) and prefer Manhattan and the bridges. (Recently I was stuck in NY/Presbyterian Hospital for surgery, and my window looked out on a pair of falcons and their nest box. They are not large birds...not small, but definitely smaller than an osprey.) A better possibility would be a Red Tail Hawk. They are big, and have no compunction about landing in a populated area to go after a squirrel, rabbit, or bird.

 

[crox99]

Paul,

I was also thinking of a Red Tail Hawk. I see them often by me and many times I see tons of feathers on my lawn.......One morning one picked up a bunny right in front of my house and flew awayas soon as I opened the door.

 

[Paul B]

Mike I do see Osprey near the sea and I see them all the time when I am on my boat as they dive for fish all around us. I never saw one in my gutter though as the thing is huge and I never saw one go after a squirrel, but I am happy if they eat those as we have plenty of squirrel's.
Do red tailed hawks have red tails? If they do, this thing did not have a red tail. It was grayish brown with darker brown spots or speckles on it's body and wings.
I think it was carrying a VW beatle in it's left talon as it was big.

 

[jaa1456]

You do know an Osprey is not an Eagel right? They are not even in the same family, they are not hawks either. They are in their own family. I have seen Osprey almost 50 miles inland, so that's not a surprise. There are 4 different types of Osprey so it might not look exactly as the ones you see all the time. It could also have been a red tail hawk as they are the next most commonly found large birds of prey or raptors in our area.

 

[Paul B]

I thought they call them sea eagles? I don't know, I know fish, platypuses, worms, and kangaroos. Osprey's, not so much.

 

[MIKE NY]

Paul ..sounds like you probably saw this guy...the red tail is only visable on the topside, but there is also a species by us without the red..
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee240/black4thgenSiR/RedTailedHawk.jpg

 

[Paul B]

Dam, I think that is it. Thank you, I thought it was an eagle or emu

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Couple days ago, in Florida, I saw 2 big birds(I assume they are eagles, not familiar with birds at all), doing combat in the air. Look as if they want to lock their crawls and try the "chicken out dive" Their fight was too fast for my slow hands to take out my phone out and shoot a video.

 

[Jakef150]

There was few report spot eagle even with pictures..

One person took a pic of eagle some where in Nassau south by small pond or lake also other person took a pic of eagle in great South Bay Area...

Do search by google

Few of us noticed that east of lsland there's much less and less crow birds...ummm

Jake