Buzzed by Hawk

PineCone

PineCone

New member
Today about 3 PM I was calling with a rabbit distress and a red plastic squeaker. Saw some movement downwind and to my right. It was a red squirrel. Suddenly a big bird drops down from high and levels out straight at me! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I put my arm up in front of my face and ducked. He spooked and zig zagged and landed on a branch twenty feet from me. I could hear his feathers as he buzzed me. It was a hawk. We stared at eachother. His feathers were ruffled. I slowly reached for my camera beside me and he took off. Pretty big bird but I don't know what kind he was because I was looking into the sun. Kind of gray and spotted. I know they have good eyesight but was he just fixed on my squeaker and didn't notice the rest of me? I was camoed pretty good. Face mask, gloves the works. I was hoping for a coyote but It was fun anyway.PC
 
Pincone
This happened to me once calling mallards .
redtail swooped me ..nearly knocking my hat off.
Than about 5 min later he did it again.I was camoed
but no decoys or anything.So I will assume they
may swoop the sound..perhaps to flush the prey.
Kinda neat but unerveing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
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A couple of weeks ago I had a red tailed hawk land 2 trees over from me while I was bowhunting. I was in a 3D suit and my face was exposed so my glasses wouldn't fog up. I kept raising my eyebrows to see if he would notice and he did after about 15 seconds. I got a little concerned he would pounce on me and mess up this pretty face that took so long to make that I raised my arms a little and he flew a couple of trees over. I took a quick scan around to check my backside and he screamed. I tell you I about had a heart attack and almost fell out of the stand! I was hoping the swamp rabbit that I had been watching a few minutes earlier was still around. Now I know why they scream, cause it sure got me moving!
 
ha, doesnt that just make your butt pucker... i had an owl about take my coon light off my head one night fox hunting and using a mouse squeaker.. i had my back to him and i could feel him brush right over my head... i about wizzed right down my leg..
 
I was buzzed by a young bald eagle last winter. Didn't know he was there until I heard the beating of his wings behind my head as he realized his mistake and was changing direction in a hurry. A few weeks ago had an osprey take interest in our distress calls but he didn't come as close. Now, if only there were as many coyotes as there seem to be raptors.
 
it is not uncommon for me to call in Red Tailed Hawks with Distress calls. Last time I was out I had two land in the tree above the caller and stare at it. I always hear them scream before I see them, they are cool to hear.
 
I have had a real close encounter with an owl due to a bulb squeaker I was working with a bare finger. It seems that the squeaker will cause a bird of prey to attack quicker than anything else. Whoever said they launch at the sound and then scream to make it's prey move and give up it's position, may be onto something. Moving quickly saved my azz with that owl.
 
Yeah nothing like getting your first buzz cut.LOL. My wife and I were sitting underneath a tree at the edge of a fence line and had a hawk swoop in on us. I guess that wasn't good enough for him so he landed in the tree above us and started hopping down limb to limb. He got to the bottom limb which is about 9 ft off the ground and just sat there staring at us for about 30 sec. I have a lot of respect for hawks and eagles, that was just a cool experience I don't think my wife and I will forget.
 
that happened to me on a number of stands last year. hawks would come in and land 10 yards in the tree in front of me. luckily i didn't have my decoy out cuz that sucker probably would of swooped down and grabbed it!!
 
Owls will probably be the death of me.
Something like 33 years ago I was standing in a tree stand, leaning back against the trunk and blowing an Olt predator call. I was hard in to my "wanna be a rock star" stage of life and had the head of hair to prove it. Strands of said hair were evidently visible from the back side and got a good yank from an owl that attacked from that side of the tree.
That scared me pretty bad. What scared the crap out of me was when he circled in front to make another pass. Something about loud frantic babbles and whines coupled with waving arms will deter even the most determined owl. Or maybe it was the smell...

Another PM'er and I (you still out there Terry?) were calling together but spaced about 50 yards apart when I heard a loud thud behind me. I spun around and saw that an oak limb about 6 inches in diameter and 20 feet long had fallen in the fresh snow a mere few inches behind me. This limb had evidently been broken in some past storm and the few pounds of the snowy owl pair fluttering in the tree above me had dislodged it. Very close call.

I have a JS-512 that has one side of the speaker flattened and has an impression of the 1/4" speaker plug embossed in it from an owl attack. Owls make little or no sound in flight..... until they run in to the horn speaker of a 512 at full speed.

The same speaker is a mass of faint and not so faint scratches on the side opposite the dent. This was caused by a smaller owl with a much more delecate touch. We had been running the call for a few minutes with me scanning with a light when the guy with me whispered to ask what was on the call. Dropping the beam a bit revealed that an owl had landed on top of my speaker and was trying to clutch it with his claws. He would scratch at it a bit and then jump straight up in the air and drop back in an effort to drive those claws home, the whole time with his wings splayed in an almost successful effort to keep his balance. Me and my buddy broke in to a splitting burst of laughter at about the third itteration of the pounce. The owl, whose back was to us, did one of "The Exorcist" head spins to take a look at us and then went right back to pouncing on my poor beat up JS-512 horn speaker.

Had plenty of hawks pay a visit, though they've never been a problem.
Owls make me nervous.
 
Never had an owl attack me but I did have one shat all over me one time. Truly an experience. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Was that before or after you started hearing the voices?PC
 
Last year in my first foray with the FX-3, my first stand started with a woodpecker distress. A big owl swoops in and lands directly above the FX-3 and just stares at it for about 5 minutes. While turkey hunting the spring before I was using an owl locater call and an amorous owl followed me through 3 different hollows looking for some affection (I suppose), funny, my wife never acts that way, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif maybe I need to use the owl call with her /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
My grand father was in his stand while deer hunting and a whole comotion of squeirrels were around him and he said he seen a big flash of white and some squilling but it happend so fast he said he tried to see if any blood was left behind but he coudnt find anything left over from the attack.

DylanD
 


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