Golden Eagle - Marathon Motel

This afternoon around 1:30 I was summoned by Matt to scan the skies north of the Marathon Motel. Thankfully there were two clouds in the sky for reference and the Golden Eagle he had sighted was between the two clouds. Any other time of the year one dark, soaring bird with wings held slightly above body would be in the Turkey Vulture/Zone-tailed Hawk genre. To see such a large mammal-eating raptor over grasslands is wonderful, they're not abundant here though a winter resident. Mountains in the background and a solitary wind courser... for me, the first sighting since October of 2007 in California.