Beware of Hawks...This ever happend to you

[Rufus]

My son and I were pheasant hunting, shotguns, and he shot his first bird ever. Cool. We were close to the pickup so we laid it on the tailgate and continued hunting. A couple of hundred yards from the truck my son looked back and said "Dad, something's in the truck". Sure nuff' there was a big old hawk sitting on his bird chowing down. Brian headed that way in a dead run and the dang bird flew off with his pheasant. Took me a bit to convince him he'd just seen a one in a million thing but he was pissed for a long time. At least he didn't shoot at the hawk!!!!

[Spinealigner]

Owls are the worst.  You can't hear them coming.

[Sam McMichael]

Does anybody remeber when a tree stand was a single notched board wedged into the fork of a tree? I had a hawk land on the limb my stand was wedged into once. Pretty scary, and I nearly fell out of the tree,  especially considering that at that time, I don't think anyone even marketed a safety harness for hunters.

I have have many tweety birds land on me, but this was the only predatory encounter I have had.

[John146]

Was on the Mermentau River coming in from a duck hunt in a 12' aluminum boat. Owl came from behind and smacked me in the head, took my cap off, flew 50 yards down the bayou in front of the boat and dropped my cap in the water. He knocked the tar out of me!  :eek:   I could not believe it. I'm running a small outboard motor and he smacks me.I will never forget that. I had mallard curl feathers in the back of my cap so I fogured that's what he keyed in on.

[deaddoc4444]

I am a licensed falconer and have hunted with and trained hawks for years.    Goshawks will   come at your head to protect their nests in the spring.  
   I had a big  Female Coopers hawk come at my face while in a tree stand hunting in Canada a number of years ago  They are intimidated by the eyes .
    In one reference  above  the hawk that took the pheasant away had to be  B I  G     hawk .  Probably a  large female Red Tail . I have had my birds take pheasants a number of times but NONE of them could ever take off with the pheasant  just too big.  
 Owls  will go after you hats    especially grey hats .   Looks like   moving game  Owls will take  possums and other large   animals like that .

[eminart]

Wow, this is much more common than I would have thought.

I had a red tail nearly nail me in the head once while in the stand. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye just in time to turn my head. He veered off before making contact.

I'm also a licensed falconer. My first bird, also a red tailed hawk, nailed me in the side of the face last year. My phone rang. I took it out of my pocket to answer it, and my hawk, sitting 15 feet away, saw the red phone I guess, and slammed into my head. I had a nice scar on my cheek and a pretty good scratch right under my left eye.

[Doc Nock]

Originally posted by Red Beastmaster:
I had a hummingbird buzzing right at my ear hole. I about turned inside out trying to get that thing away from me before he plunged his beak into my brain!

After it was gone and I finished my break dance I realized it was probably just checking out my bright colored fletching sticking out of my back quiver.

I'm guessing even the hummingbirds just know how "sweet" a fella ya really are, Beastie!  

Or they were released from some Zombie movie!

[Red Beastmaster]

Doc, I'm going with "sweet".

[Bowwild]

In the mid-80's I was elk hunting near Kremmling, Colorado. I was in a makeshift ground blind wearing a knit cap. I was being very still when I saw a Goshawk coming right at my head. I moved to dodge and the bird realized it's mistake. I just about had a cold head!

Another time in Northern Indiana I was in a tree stand.  It was about 40 minutes before light. I was hit in the left shoulder by a bird. I'm assuming it was a screech owl -- I didn't hear or see it, just felt a blow on the shoulder.

All of these are better than jumping a ruffed grouse while walking in the dark!

[Butternutz]

Never had a problem with hawks just bears climbing up in the tree with me. This happened to me on my first bear hunt I went on many years ago. Now it doesn't bother me        Don

[RusTia]

I just came across this thread, but I too had an encounter with a chicken hawk recently. It left me wondering how often this happens to other hunters. October 10 I was in my treestand, and was looking over my left shoulder toward a cornfield. For no reason at all, I turned my head toward the right, and to my surprise, a giant ball of white wings was only 10 yards away, coming straight for me. My sudden movement caught him off guard and we both shared frantic faces. He turned quickly and soared away. I was surprised how quietly he was coming in. I never knew he was there. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I had not turned my head back around in his direction.