Hello to everyone! I'm new here and have a question.

Yesterday evening my husband and I went for a walk on the logging roads near our house here on the central Oregon coast, about 6 miles inland (all forest between us and the ocean). As we came to the top of a hill, we suddenly heard a noise above us, and looked up in time to see three large birds taking off from the tops of some trees. Over the course of the next 2 or 3 minutes, as we slowly walked along, about 15 to 20 more of these same birds took off from the tops of nearby trees, sometimes just one at a time, sometimes in groups of 3 or 4.

All had a wingspan of about 4 feet across, and all appeared to be medium to dark brown, though it was hard to tell in the twilight. Then we found a feather on the ground. It is about 13 inches long, and is mostly dark chocolate brown except for 2 inches from the bottom, where the "feather" part gets wider and lighter brown.

We have never seen anything like this, and we've been walking in this same area for 2 1/2 years. It was really an amazing sight. I've been doing some research this afternoon into birds in our area, and I can't seem to decide whether they were hawks, falcons, or maybe even eagles. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of birds these may have been?

Thanks! 8)