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large bird of prey with white dots on wings (1 Viewer)

T

trippytinker

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For the last month or so I have noticed a large bird of prey with white dots on its wings. We live in West Wales and are quite used to buzzards and Red Kites. This bird is really impressive seems to be slightly larger than a buzzard and the white circles on the underside resemble a WW2 fighter plane. Please can anyone tell me what it is,
thanks
 
Size is not easily assessed, especially for a bird soaring alone in the sky.
A picture would really help, but Reuven's suggestion does not seem implausible for a West Wales location.
 
etudiant said:
Size is not easily assessed, especially for a bird soaring alone in the sky.
A picture would really help, but Reuven's suggestion does not seem implausible for a West Wales location.
Click to expand...

No really it is very implausible, there are no eagles in Wales.
 
There actually was a story on the Welsh News a while ago about an escaped eagle being sighted around here. The 'roundels' on the wings are very pronounced and I'm fairly certain it is not a buzzard. Buzzards are VERY common here, constantly being mobbed by crows, this bird is much darker and larger. I'm working outside and shall attempt a photo when (hopefully) i see it again.
 
White circles under wings

Yesterday I saw the very thing which you describe. I was lying on my back in the pool and there, right above me the bird was doing a slow circle. He reminds me of the circles on the zeros of WWII. Pure white and large like suns. The other colors were in two verticle strips of deep blue and brown (?) along the outer sides of the circles under the wings. I have never seen this bird before. I wondered if he thought I was dead. I looked down for a moment and then back up but the huge bird was gone. The wing span appears to be about nine feet. One can see the scallops on the edges of the wings that are not along the bottom of the wings such as on an eagle, but rather along what one would describe as the tips of the wings if the bird was an airplane. The birds are all migrating strangely and I guess the Fukishima radiation drift patterns have something to do with that.
 
etudiant said:
I stand corrected. Had thought they had been successfully reintroduced into the western parts of the UK.
Click to expand...

White-tailed Eagle has been reintroduced to western Scotland and is currently being reintroduced to eastern Sotland and south-western Ireland.

Golden Eagle is found across northern Scotland with a small population in southern Scotland and a single territorial male in north west England. It is currently being reintroduced to north western Ireland.

Blad Eagle and Lesser Short-toed Eagle have occurred as vagrants, as may have Greater Spotted Eagle and Booted Eagle.

Regards

David
 
No reason to rule out Golden Eagle based on location.

If you're confident it's not a Buzzard or 'Kite, it's worth looking down that route.

David

Edit: No reason to rule out the species, but probably questionable provenance.
 
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stablewill said:
No reason to rule out Golden Eagle based on location.

If you're confident it's not a Buzzard or 'Kite, it's worth looking down that route.

David

Edit: No reason to rule out the species, but probably questionable provenance.
Click to expand...

There was a Golden Eagle in West Wales last winter & I believe it'd been around for a while, but otherwise it would be a reasonably safe assumption to rule out Golden Eagle in general as there have been very few records in Wales in recent history, single figures in fact.
 
There has been a golden eagle "at large" in mid-Wales for nearly two years, though sightings have been infrequent. They are not unknown as migrants, with records from northumberland, norfolk (19th C) and more recently in North Yorkshire. Single individuals have also been noted "in-off" in Northern Ireland, presumably from the population on the western Isles. Photos would clinch it though.
Regards
Daniel
 
Parker said:
There was a Golden Eagle in West Wales last winter & I believe it'd been around for a while, but otherwise it would be a reasonably safe assumption to rule out Golden Eagle in general as there have been very few records in Wales in recent history, single figures in fact.
Click to expand...

The balance of probability would suggest no, certainly. But it's worth noting for the original poster that there have been at least 2 different Golden Eagles in the mid-Wales area over the last two years.

I can think of three or four records in the last few years in Wales, and it wouldn't surprise me if there had been more unbroadcast sightings.

Speculation and conjecture largely pointless though, without some photos or a better description!
 
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Has no-one noticed that this thread is from 2010? But was resurrected yesterday by someone sighting something similar in the US.
 
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