Migrating Osprey?

Osprey on Beaver Lake

Faith and I saw this fellow flying near our house.  We originally thought it was a juvenile eagle.  He was far enough away even with binoculars we couldn’t tell.  I grabbed the long lens, 1.7x converter, and D300.  That’s a whopping 1500mm reach, about 3 times the binoculars.

The tripod was in the car so I pointed the monster out the window and shot handheld.  By the time I got back with the tripod he was gone.  The blur on the left side of the image was the branches between us.

We assume he is migrating but his nearest habitat is at least a 1000 miles away!?!