Beware of Hawks...This ever happend to you

[Panzer]

When I lived in Ohio I was attacked by a Blue Jay one day while shoveling snow in my driveway. The bird attacked the tobogan I was wearing and actually tried to follow me into my house. Still not sure what his problem was.

[owlbait]

Owls yes, multiple times, multiple states (owlbait). I had a red tail land on a branch on the other side of a tree from me. I started scratching the bark with my fingers reaching toward the other side when I suddenly realized he had bad intent in his eyes and was about to grab my fingers. Some of the best things happen to keep us really alive when we are hunting!

[reddogge]

Had an owl in the dark try to take my hat off but my scariest bird story happened this summer. I was showing my 5 yo grandaughter some bluebird babies and when I opened the box the fledglings all flew out. I guess they were ready to go because they all could fly. Momma and daddy bluebird just about killed me dive bombing me. I couldn't get away from them fast enough.

[SELFBOW19953]

I was sitting in a pine tree just before sundown a number of years ago.  I heard what I thought was antlers being tickled together.  I got a good grip on my bow, all senses on edge, moving only my etes looking for the deer. Suddenly, a screech owl let loose rght behind me.  Unlike Bill, I scared off every animal within a mile when I yelled!!!  I immediately realized what the noise was, and turned to see the owl an arm's length away.  Had I not been wearing my safety belt, I probably would have launched myself.

[Recurve50 LBS]

I've had close calls with "hawks" on 2 occasions and my son has had a close call from an owl. We hunt from the ground and have also had visits from fox inside our natural ground blinds. Pretty cool if you can fool their sharp eyes!

[wood carver 2]

I had a Great Horned Owl try and take a duck decoy 10 feet from me one morning before sunup; and a songbird perch on my elbow for a couple of minutes. Also, small critters run across my feet.
It's fun sitting still sometimes.  :D  
Dave.

[BWD]

Had an owl take my hat off when I was varmint hunting one night.

[ChuckC]

A lot, especially when I used to sit just ten or so yards inside a field edge.  Once I heard a tiny tick (wing hitting twigs) and turned in time to see a danged Barred owl coming at my face.  Boy did I ever move. Another time a big red tail landed in the same big oak, maybe 7 yards away and he was watching.  Being the smart &$$ that I am I started wiggling a finger.  Bam. .  he was locked on visually.  Then I thought " How stupid is that !"  and I took my face mask off ending the stand off.
ChuckC

[Ausable]

Lots of owls and hawks, nothing has made contact, but many near misses over the years!

[cuboodle]

One early morning before first light I was standing on the edge of a gas line overlooking the woods below I notice movement about 10 feet away its a rabbit. About a min later an owl flew in its wingtip brushed my shoulder no more rabbit. It killed it what seemed like instantly. I left to let him enjoy his breakfast.

[AWPForester]

Never had it happen to me but my dad who has a thick head of hair, which at the time was about half gray, half black, had a big owl grab his head one morning ripping the toboggin off of it while in his treestand.  He was about 18-20 feet up, pre-dawn, etc...  I got a kick outta it.  

Only thing that worries me is it appears to be much more common than I thought and when ever I have a moment of laughter at somone elses' expense, the Lord seems to remind me of my questions by ensuring I expierence it firsthand.  God Bless

[Bill Carlsen]

As I was reading some of these accounts I remember one incident where a great horned owl landed near me and kept watching me until dark when I departed. He wasn't very close, maybe 20 yards and in the treetops. At the time I had some white fletched arrows in my quiver. When I got down from my treestand and was walking out the owl would fly over me and land in a tree on the trail I was on. He followed  me all the way out from the  hardwoods to the field where he stopped stalking me. All I could imagine was that he/she was interested in my white fletching.

[WESTBROOK]

We used to make ground blinds, basicaly a 3 X 3 roof with 2 poles holding up the front and the back wired to a tree trunk, and pile brush around us, just something to keep the rain off us. One day my Dad heard the rumble of a Partridge taking flight, he looked straight ahead and said it looked like a baseball coming at him, he jerked his head to the side (near miss) that Pat went flying straight through his blind about 45MPH.

Eric

[twitchstick]

I had one land on a limb next to me when I was on a stand. It keeped looking at me then glided off the limb and took a swoop at my face. when I ducked out of the way I could tell it was a little surprized when I moved. I think it could see my eye movement but didn't know what I was.

I also seen one freak out a deer once I had been watching one morning. I was watching a doe in my binos when I seen a streak flash through the binos to the deers feet. The deer jump straight up in the air then the deer circle around scared half to death only to see a hawk at it feet, it was pretty funny to watch. The hawk had got a mouse that the deer had kicked up.

[Thumper Dunker]

That happens all the time to me.

[Breakfast Boy]

Never had it happened to me before, but the next time I'm in the stand I bet I'm constantly looking above me instead of below me!  Lol!

I did have a bald eagle steal a mallard that I had shot while duck hunting.  Just plain cool to watch, although I wanted that duck for dinner.

[StickBowManMI]

I was hunting for deer while standing on the ground next to a tree. A Red Tailed Hawk came in and landed on a tree limb about 15 feet away from me and about 10 feet above me. The hawk was looking right in my eyes. The next thing I knew was seeing him take off and swoop down at me. I dropped on the ground and the hawk must have changed his mine about me as Prey for dinner. It was an amazing experience.

[Bill Carlsen]

Tonight on my tree stand I had a doe come in. Since I have already filled my archery doe tag all I could do was watch. As I hung my bow back up a barred owl tried to take my face off. I saw it just as I hung my bow back up and the owl veered off and landed in a tree about 20 yards away. The doe didn't know anything was going on and the owl just perched for about 10 minutes watching both me and the deer. The owl finally left and 2 more does showed up. It was a good night.

It all happened so fast I just had time to intuitively block my face. I was wearing a new set of Ultimate camo fleece.....all I can say is I highly recommend it...you disappear in it and it is as quiet as anything I have ever worn in the woods.

[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.

[Sixby]

Not in the woods but a couple of weeks ago I had a large trash barrel out on the sidewalk cleaning out my front flower bed and bam a bird hit the barrel, feathers going everywhere and wham another one hit the barrel. I was holding on to it and scared the tar out of me. A dove had used me and the barrel to try to escape a large coopers hawk/. both hit the barrel hard/.
The dove got up and flew between me and the barrel and the hawk followed it./ Caught the dove in the neighbors driveway and tore it apart and ate it. Awsome thing to happen in the middle of the city.  

I have had a lot of owls and hawks come in when I was coyote calling . some came real close to taking my hat but none ever really hit me. Sure got me looking around a lot though.

God bless you all, Steve