Muddyemms

New York' s Northern Zone opened for rifles this past Saturday. Well, here I was, in my tree stand, which had been placed in a fair-sized hemlock. I' m nearly nodding off, because it seems (to me, anyway) that that time is when deer show up, when from my 11 0' clock, I see this white-and-black thing hurtling towards me through the air. It shows wings--it' s a hawk! It pulls up suddenly, then lands in a tree about 30 feet away at my 1 o' clock or so. It glares at me (talk about getting " the evil eye!" ), then flies off into the forest. I had no problems with nodding off then, as my blood pressure had skyrocketed.

I figure that the hawk was due to one of two reasons--either I was in the tree it wanted to perch in, or it saw my long gray hairs poking out from under the Realtree Hardwoods HD cap, and thought, " It' s meal time!" Once it saw that I was bigger than it was, it did what it could to avoid winding up in the same tree as me.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

JD IN ALBERTA

twice this year! I nearly fell out of my stand both times[]...I wasn' t sure either if it wanted to eat me or mount me Glad I' m straped in. JDinAB

fishnhunt

I was dove hunting this year, sitting in a tree line. I had been watching this hawk fly for a little while. Next thing I know he is heading right towards me. I threw up my arms and he pulled up and landed on a branch about 5 feet above me. My hunting buddies all called on the walkie talkies making sure I was OK. Scared me a little bit.

plainsman

Had a buddy of mine take 3 geese in 3 shots a couple of weeks ago, but only took home 2 of them.While gathering the first 2 a golden eagle relieved him of the third,shoulda seen the look on his face,[][][D

Joe_148

last year i was sitting on a milk crate on a trail deep in the woods and an owl landed not 10 feet from me above me on a branch. It sat there for a good 15 minutes just staring at me, then it would plunge its neck forward and shake his head to one side then back forward to get a better view. It was a funny experience, although I was scared for a second..[8D]

Gryan

Many times, it scares the $%#@ out of me every time. Hawks are beginning thier migration now and they are very territorial. I asked a ornothologist this some years ago after a coopers hawk almost nocked me out of the tree.

Greg

wimp

Many years ago I had a hawk almost land on me. I happened to see him coming out of the corner of my eye. When I moved, I don' t know who was more suprised, me or him.

mainehunt

My guess is that the hawk is " homing" in on your hair. The reason I say this, is because many states have laws against using " visible" bate for trapping fur bearing animals. When I was about twelve years old, (25 years ago) I trapped fox and coon. I caught a few of each under a large cottonwood tree beside a soybean field. When checking the trap one afternoon after school, I found that I caught a Great Horned Owl. I returned a few minutes later with my dad and we released it. Amazingly his leg wasn' t broken, not even bleeding.
So..after all this rambling, the reason I caught the owl was because I had used the head of a cottontail rabbit as bait. It was stuck down a hole 10" deep, but that darned owl saw it!

Muddyemms

Yeah, mainehunt, that' s what I figure. One of my co-workers said the same thing yesterday. I' ve needed a haircut for a while--my wife likes it military-short--and I think that I' m gonna do that tomorrow![]

thenuge15

Last year! Fortunately I saw it flying around before it saw me then when it swopped it saw I was bigger and turned at about 5 ft.