I am pretty sure I saw a bald eagle yesterday while going down the 405 frwy where it crosses the los Angeles river. The bird was sitting on a sigh and I only had a back view of him, shoulders and head. I can’t think of any other large bird with a solid white head and neck with the same color shoulders You would see on a bald eagle. This is a first for me in this area. Feather were ruffled somewhat and he was not stretched out so I disn’t have the best view.
Potentially an Osprey, if you didn’t get a good look.
I got a good look of head and shoulders rear view, but as I said feathers were somewhat ruffled. The pure white and sudden transition I have never seen on an osprey, we do see them around here now and then.
I don’t necessarily doubt that you spotted an eagle, they have shown up in unexpected places.
Since they were protected the Bald Eagle has really spread. There are quite a few of them in New Jersey. Despite the fact that one of the more famous nest cams is pretty close to where I live I’ve never seen one in the wild here. I had to go all the way to Alaska for that
Just saw one on Wednesday at Mission Viejo Lake in south Orange County in California.
He was sitting atop a very tall Pine. I got a photo on him with my cellphone. He’s pretty tiny in the shot, but its a Bald Eagle alright.
That is about 30 miles from where I spotted this one. If traffic wouldn’t have been so heavy I would have pulled over and got a front view photo. A good friend of mine lives right on that lake maybe a block or so away. I will ask him to look out for it.
There’s an ebird report of a Bald Eagle in Palos Verdes with photos from Thanksgiving Day. Could have been the same bird, or a different one. They’ve certainly become more common in a lot of places over the last few years.
They’ve been spotted in a few places in the SF Bay Area. I would not be at all surprised to see them in LA. They do look fabulous!!
Saw one this past Thursday myself, though there’s nothing particularly unusual about seeing one here. The experience was somewhat detracted from by the fact that it was scavenging a roadkill whitetail. Started flying off as I drove towards it, and my thought process went, “That’s a really big crow…that’s brown…and has a white head.” Majestic bird of prey or filthy scavenger? You decide. 