Being that it's "huge" and that it's this time of year, I would guess a pale, semi-albinistic or albinistic FERRUGINOUS HAWK. They vary from palest brown to almost pure white. They are winter passers and stay around from January into April. The link I'm attaching shows some dark forms as well as almost white forms. Joe Here is a link that might be useful: Ferruginous Hawk

I had my very *first* juvie sharpie yesterday in my yard. I was very surprised to see just how petite and gangly these guys are! I was mesmerized.

Interesting analogy regarding the diseases brought to the new world. One big difference, we didn't know the damage the feathered rats were going to do to our environment when we released them in Central Park and we certainly didn't know they were vectors of WNV or I can assure you the people releasing them wouldn't have been allowed to do so. Unfortunately, we knew enough about the spread of disease when we traded blankets with the Native Americans and willfully and intentionally chose to trade blankets that had been used by people who had died of small pox and measles. Yup, it's sick but true. You know, not many people realize that eagles will eat carrion just like an opossum or a vulture. I don't bring road kill to the rehabbers or to that little local zoo. Just HOSPs and EUSTs and rats. I don't know what critters they're feeding our frozen morsels to other than vultures and snakes. They have a walk in deep freeze and there are buckets of white rats in there so presumably they take source into consideration when feeding? Vultures are well adapted to cleansing themselves of bacteria. Don't know how well adapted they are to ridding themselves of parasites in captivity but they've got vets on staff so the next time I run into one I'll ask how they deal with those issues. One thing though, I don't believe any of the raptors they have are capable of being released back to the wild. Their eagle is missing an eye and one of their raptors had to have a wing amputated as a result of some injury. I think something happened to all of the birds of prey they have that prohibited their release back to the wilds. I have visited a little family owned zoo in another state that survives in part because of donations of fresh road kill deer that are brought to them by local residents and a county agency for their "retired" lions and tigers- http://www.deyoungzoo.com/about.htm I know there are other little zoos that eek out an existence because of road kill donations. Something that might be of interest to you- http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00946/accounts/micro.htm Really sorry about your little cat. I've got two here that are older and I know the day is coming. One is 20-21 and the other is 19. They came from shelters so we aren't positive on the age but the one was supposedly around 10-12 when we brought him home and we have had him for 10 years. The other had been returned a few times and they tracked back his age to when he was a kitten so he was around 11 when we got him and we've had him 8 years. Our other cats are much younger and are all just over 10 years of age. They're a part of the family so I feel really bad for the hole in your heart you've got right now.

I see you're in IA. My advice is to Google red-shouldered hawks. They can be mistaken for Cooper's hawks or Sharpies due to the orange-barred chest. They are usually a very vocal hawk. They're not huge- just about red-tail size- but they will appear bigger than a Cooper's hawk and especially bigger than a Sharpie.