If it was an osprey, even a juvenile, I don't see how she could have been in any doubt after 'a good look close up'. I've watched many ospreys and even in silhouette they stand out as being different. However, perhaps she didn't have binoculars if she was on the way to work.
The bird in the picture really doesn't look like an osprey to me at all. I know I was influenced when I first looked at it by the subconscious thought it couldn't be a buzzard, because the post implied something more exotic. In Suffolk I've had many views of hen harriers, male and female, rising over hedges and then quartering over fields and it was that behavioural jizz that misled me, I think. Prejudices aside, I can now only see it as a buzzard!!
Sorry, Chris! If she's right, it's not with this photo, I fear, that she'll be able to prove it.
Guy
PS - I always write or dictate field notes when I see something out of the ordinary. Field notes would be very useful here. A description of what it looked like sitting, made while it was sitting, would certainly reveal more than the photo.
