I saw a huge bird of prey about 2-3 years ago in the Lake District and it’s been bugging me ever since trying to work out what it was.
It was standing in the middle of the road eating what looked like roadkill, it didn’t stop for my car so I had to almost stop and drive around it. It looked me dead in the eye as I drove past and I was terrified it was sooo big!
Ive seen lots of birds of prey, theres quite a lot where I live. I used to drive this particular route 10 times per week and was familiar with certain birds of prey I’d often pass in the same places, this was massively bigger than anything I’ve ever seen in the wild. Certainly not a buzzard or anything that size. My first thought was that it was something that had got loose from one of the bird of prey centres.
When I looked at images the closest I can identify is the golden eagle, but how likely is it that I saw one in the Lake District? Have there been any other sightings in this area? I also looked at pictures of a red kite, but I still think it looked more like an eagle with chunkier legs and that death stare almost turned my blood cold
While it is not impossible to see Golden Eagles in the Lake District this sounds more like Buzzard or Kite behaviour to me. The is a Golden Eagle relocation scheme over the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway and that it not far away as Eagles fly so your Eagle sighting is not impossible but I doubt you would get so close that you had to drive round it.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
A pair of Golden Eagles nested in the Haweswater area for many years and then only the one adult left and eventually died of Natural causes. The RSPB for many years had an observation point with telescopes where you could look through telescopes from a very long distance to see the Golden Eagles at the nest. Bur sadly no Golden Eagles have nested for a lot of years now..
Regards,
Ian.