this is a breeding pair, so they should be the same. the underside shot on #4 just didnt show the color variation. i have a 5 mp dig cam with 12x and that was the best it would do from the distance. it is strange how much size dif there is in the pair.

Mmmmmm! Beautiful bird!

The pale underwing coverts and dark flight feathers occur with both Osprey and Swainson's Hawk. Either is possible in this case, but I agree this bird looks better for an Osprey with the dark at the bend of the wing and the style of tail/flight feather banding.

Yesterday afternoon was windless and sunny, in the mid20’s, so I went for a walk in the field along the river. A pair of mature bald eagles flew out of one of the large pines along the bank and right over my head a couple of times as they gained altitude to clear the trees farther upriver. I only had my cellphone, but at least low flying eagles are large enough to be visible in the photos. All fall and into early winter I have been seeing mergansers on the river, but I haven’t remembered to grab the camera, and they are too far to photograph with the phone because it is a long riverbank. The males have had a good amount of white well into December, so I wonder if that is from last year’s breeding plumage or for this coming year. There was ice starting to form on the river yesterday and I didn’t see the mergansers, so they may have decided to move somewhere that the water will remain open during the winter.