Possible Golden Eagle and Definite Yellow Spring Flowers

Spring is full of beauty, and, for some reason, so much of that beauty is in shades of yellow.  Spring seems to have come on so quickly.  I look around me and it seems like the trees were bare just yesterday.

Wasn't it just yesterday?

Which brings us to the possible Golden Eagle my spouse saw today.  (If you aren't into birds, you can skip right to the photos of flowers).

About 11:30 am yesterday, spouse was on our back porch, which faces a small wooded area.  Suddenly, a dark bird that looked,at first, like a huge crow landed on a branch.   It definitely wasn't a crow.  Besides the large size, it had the stance of a raptor sitting in a tree.

 There were a number of common grackles in the area (they love our yard, sadly), and these birds started to mob this mystery bird. The grackles flew around it and harassed it for a few minutes before it flew off.  Spouse got a good look at it. No flash of red tail.  Very dark uniform brown except the head was a little lighter.  The underside of wings were "very dark; no white tips on wings, no white markings on the underside. Spouse is pretty positive it wasn't a juvenile bald eagle. 

The bird didn't seem agitated by the mobbing almost like it was beneath his (or her) dignity to pay attention to it.

We've only been birding for a little over a year. Spouse consulted our bird guides and thought, by process of elimination, it might be a golden eagle.  When I came down for lunch (I work from home) I used Merlin (a bird ID app) and it did not return golden eagle, possibly because they are rare in our area (southern tier of New York State) but spring migration is in progress.  The app didn't return any bird that looked like this.

The bird never made a sound.

Spouse didn't take pictures. With his iPhone SE first edition, it probably wouldn't have picked anything up, anyway.

After lunch, spouse went to our local Wild Birds Unlimited.  A customer, hearing spouse's description of what he saw, said that there had been a golden eagle sighting in a village about five miles from us. The counter person said it was quite possible, given that we are in spring migration.

So, now what?  I don't want to report it to eBird (a bird reporting app) given that we are beginners and this is a rare bird in our area.  But - ???

I know some birders read my blog so any comments you have may be helpful.

Meanwhile, Merlin did identify (from sound) a yellow warbler so right now I'm excited between that and the possible golden eagle.

END OF BIRDING SEGMENT

And now, to the flowers.

 Let's take a walk where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.

Forsythia.

My early jonquils.

Species tulip - on their way out now, but this was when they were in their full beauty. 

Mid season daffodils at my house.

A viola. 

Daffodils at a local nursery last Friday.  White with pale yellow trumpets.

A bed of daffodils in Binghamton, New York, earlier in April.

Finally, a yellow primrose at our local botanical garden.

 It's hard to believe that only two weeks ago, we had about 10 inches of snow and massive power failures.  

I think - I hope - that spring is here to stay.  Alas, our migrating birds are passing through, but their journeys may be brightening my and spouse's golden years.