Ken Fortenberry wrote in message m...

outdoor educational venues on the planet I met more professional
ornithologists and their serious birder students than you have

Reminds me of a Saturday morning when I was out pulling weeds in
my front yard when a couple stopped their SUV across the road and
started looking up in the sky with their binoculars. I mosied
across and asked them what they're looking at, and one said "I
think its a buteo." I was sooo tempted to say "and here I thought
it was just a hawk" :-) But I held my tongue and just said "Wow",
and went back to my weeding.

I'm not going to look anything up, but I've always heard that
goldens were bigger, and my own experiences seem to bear that
out (although I could be fooling myself). I've seen quite a few
of both up close. One of the neatest nature show videos I've ever
seen was of a golden diving and taking a young antelope.

Jon.