What a hoot!
 

Last night as I was reaching for my bow lowering rope and moving my hands around, just after enough light to see to shoot. A 16 inch tall OWL with a 3 foot wing span came in and landed 4 feet away in the tree next to me. We were at eye level. It stopped. WE looked each other in the eyes, I raised my hands to cover my face and it flew off. It looked like I was on the lunch menue. Sure glad it did not land on my head! I've been hearing them , but this was a close up view.

RE: What a hoot!
 

Yea, cool isn't it. I had a small screech owl land about two feet from me a couple of years ago. Hung out for awhile before he flew off. Just one more example why I love bow hunting!:D

RE: What a hoot!
 

Be careful, I know a guy that got flogged by one a few years back. It cut him up pretty bad. He had a mask on and I guess the owl could just see the white of his eyes and thought it was prey. Last year my best buddy had a hawk flying straight for him, in the same scenerio, and he waved his bow at him when he got about 10 yeards from him, the hawk luckily veered off course.

RE: What a hoot!
 

I had some kinda small hawk whip by me & land 6 or 7 feet away last week. Dont know what he was but he was pigeon sized & gray with a brownish head & neck. I kinda got the impresion he was thinking of landing on me till he got a closer look. He came at me from behind, so I just kinda heard a swoosh & he landed a few feet away. We just looked a each other awhile & he flew off. I wasn't scared. :D But he wasn't 16" tall either.

RE: What a hoot!
 

there's a small screech owl that hunts our treelines at dusk. when i hunt here i see him about every night. very cool, except for the time there was a chipmunk below me and to the right the owl was kind of stalking. i never knew a chipmunk could stick his head out of a hole and scream alert for 30 minutes. it was a terrible, terrible noise.

RE: What a hoot!
 

Several years ago I turned just in time to see a Red Tailed Hawk, talons stretched ready and eye's on me...when I turned he started to do a back peddle mighty quick....he was within a few feet of me and I could feel the wind from his wings as he back peddled. I can imagine when we're standing still just moving our necks we might be mistaken as a squirrel..

Just last year I had a falcon that decided I was on the menu....I saw him set his cross hairs on me...he started his dive and I decided that was close enough, I waved my arms....he circled, again set on his dive and I had to wave him off again...I guess he got the picture the second time....it is fun though. Just some more reasons why it's such a magical time to be in the woods.