I was driving down Highway #46 in Essex County today, and a large bird flew overhead. I pulled over to look at it, but it was flying south over farm fields where I couldn't follow. By the time I got out of the vehicle and stood on the shoulder of the road it was 1,000' feet away, so I couldn't watch it anymore. The wing flap frequency was about 1 to 1.5 per second. This bird did not appear to be a glider, but it's flight seemed easy and graceful.
This bird was grey, and the wingspan was at least 5', maybe 6', and very straight from body to tip, like an eagle or owl wing. The wings were about 16" from front to back for the full length. There was no distinguishable curvature, like you see in a gull wing, and the wing tips were round. The 'finger' feathers were barely distinguishable. The head was short and inconspicuous.
Yes, this all sounds normal, but there was one distinction: the tail was about 16" to 18" long, and bulbous like a spindle turned on a lathe. I'll say 3" off the body, rounding up to 4", and then narrowing before a longer and more slender wide part, then narrowing toward the tip.
This picture of a chair spindle is pretty close to what the tail looked like:
Just picture the bulb on the right to be round and a bit larger, and the wide part on the left a bit narrower. The tip also came to a point, unlike the spindle. I distorted this image to approximate the dimensions of the bird's tail.
I've never seen anything like this bird, either in person or in pictures. I have no idea what it was.
This bird was grey, and the wingspan was at least 5', maybe 6', and very straight from body to tip, like an eagle or owl wing. The wings were about 16" from front to back for the full length. There was no distinguishable curvature, like you see in a gull wing, and the wing tips were round. The 'finger' feathers were barely distinguishable. The head was short and inconspicuous.
Yes, this all sounds normal, but there was one distinction: the tail was about 16" to 18" long, and bulbous like a spindle turned on a lathe. I'll say 3" off the body, rounding up to 4", and then narrowing before a longer and more slender wide part, then narrowing toward the tip.
This picture of a chair spindle is pretty close to what the tail looked like:
Just picture the bulb on the right to be round and a bit larger, and the wide part on the left a bit narrower. The tip also came to a point, unlike the spindle. I distorted this image to approximate the dimensions of the bird's tail.
I've never seen anything like this bird, either in person or in pictures. I have no idea what it was.
