While visiting Pine Grove at Lake Monroe, I walked up a ravine about 50 feet, and was surprised by a rather large bird on the ground. It was mostly white, with some black trimming the wings. It was the size of a chicken, maybe a bit larger, with fuzzy fledgling feathers. When it saw me, it retreated under a stone ledge. It made an incredible hissing sound with two distinct tones, I at first thought there were 2 animals there, the other hiding deeper under the ledge.
I ran down to my bike and grabbed by camera, and came back. I turned off the flash so I would not scare it, so these pictures are not very clear. I could see that it had three claws in front and one is back. It’s beak was not long like a heron, which was my first guess, but rather curved like a raptor’s. But who knows I could not make out the legs well enough to tell if it was a wading bird. We had seen an adult blue heron fly away from this area ealier, which made me think this was the important clue.
We were afraid that critters would get the fledgling that night, so we biked up to the Paynetown ranger office, and told them about it, they said Rex Watters would look into it, I hope he did. After talking to several folks there, we thought perhaps it was a baby osprey! But again, I just don’t know, so anyone has a clue, please leave a comment.