Maybe it was an Osprey, honey...they hang out at Lorenzi Park a few miles from here...
http://www.ospreys.com/OSPREY, Pandion haliaetus (pan-DIE-on hal-ih-ay EE-tus); genus name: see OSPREY FAMILY ; species name: Latin, sea eagle. In summer along lakes, rivers, seacoasts of U.S., Canada, Alaska; local, uncommon, or widely scattered over most of range; even in migration usually follows water of interior river valleys, seashore;
21-241/2 in. long; wingspread 54-72 in.; almost eagle size; females larger than males; sexes outwardly alike; adults very dark brown above; clear white below; breast somewhat spotted or streaked with brown; head largely white like bald eagle, but broad black mark through cheeks, side of neck; bill and claws (talons) black; eyes yellow to brown; cere pale blue; legs and feet green-white; overhead, distinguished by white underparts, norrow wings, black patch at sharp bend, or "wrist", of wings; tail fairly long, narrowly barred; flies with slow powerful wingbeats alternated with glide; immatures like adults but underparts flecked with white; underparts buffy; usual call is melodious whistle, chewk-chewk-chewk or cheap-cheap-cheap; migrates north in spring from
general wintering grounds, S. America, Mexico, southern U.S.; begins in Feb., arrives northern U.S. Mar.-Apr.; in Canada, Alaska, Apr. into May (Bent 1937); has become rare as nesting bird in some parts of U.S. especially in North and East, where unsuccessful reproduction believed result of chemical pollution of waters and fishes on which Osprey preys, but see Ames and Mersereau (1964) and Peterson (1969) for evidence of catastrophic decline and factors causing it in population of Ospreys from New Jersey north to Maine, and in Michigan (Postupalsky 1969; 1971); failure to show population decline in migration at Hawk Mountain, Pa., duscussed by Spofford (1969) and Taylor (1972); decline also attributed to man's encroachment on Osprey's estuaries and seacoast nesting habitat, and shooting of Ospreys (Kenyon 1947; Dunstan 1970), especially in migration (Henny and Wight 1969); Chesapeake Bay population, Talbot County, Md., most successful in East; population thriving or holding its own in Fl. and in parts of West; first American Osprey sanctuary established in 1969 on Crane Prarie Osprey Management Area in Deschutes National Forest, Ore., where largest colony of nesting Ospreys (48 active nests in 1969) in Pacific Northwest (Roberts 1970); for a California report, see Kahl and Garber (1972) and for coastal Carolinas, Henny and Noltemeier (1975); for continental surveys and status of Osprey see Dunstan (1970) and Henny and Ogden (1970). To help Ospreys with nesting platforms, see illustrated article in Pettingill and Lancaster (1970). (In the feather, or millinery, trade, egret plumes were often called "osprey plumes", but Ospreys have no plumes; apparently the feathers were never sought in the trade; also, plumage of Osprey has peculiar oily odor that permeates its feathers and even its eggshells, for many years ---Wetmore 1937.)
Images from...
http://www.birdandhike.com/Wildlife/Birds/Birds.htm
