cool thing in the bow blind last night

[Lloyd Smale]

was sitting there seeing nothing when a little baby owl landed in a branch about 4 feet from my face. It was about 4 inches tall. I stayed there stairing at me for about a 1/2 hour. Ive seen quite a few owls in the woods but never a baby. No deer but it made the night for me.

[Silvertp]

LLoyd...any chances it was a Saw-whet owl?  They are a cool little critter about the size of your fist when full grown.  I had one fly a 360 around me one day, he maintained eye contact like he was really curious and trying to figure out what I was.

Silvertp

[Land_Owner]

Quite a report.  Neat things happen in the woods.  I had a red shouldered hawk try to land in the stand with me on Saturday.  it apparently uses the shooting rail as a perch when no one is seated there.  It wasn't "aware" of my presence until I turned to look in its direction while it was attempting to land.  Then both its eyes and mine were widened significantly.  It flew away with "attitude".

[Lloyd Smale]

a guy on another fourm beat you to it and suggested that and i did some looking and thats exactly what it was.  I had never heard of them. sure was a cute little bugger. All i could think about was trying to reach out and snatch him and take him home. Dont think the dnr would have appreciated that though.

LLoyd...any chances it was a Saw-whet owl?  They are a cool little critter about the size of your fist when full grown.  I had one fly a 360 around me one day, he maintained eye contact like he was really curious and trying to figure out what I was.

Silvertp

[guzzijohn]

Very cool! I have thermaled in a glider with other hawks. One time though I had a red tail hawk fly "formation" with me just about 10 feet from the canopy and stayed there for what seemed like a minute or more. Also had a lot of eye contact during that time
GuzziJohn

[Hooker]

I had a Kestrel land on my bow right next to my hand one afternoon. That was cool.
One evening a Great Horned Owl tried to land on me,the dang thing came out of no where I almost messed my pants 

Pat

[Land_Owner]

One evening a Great Horned Owl tried to land on me, the dang thing came out of no where I almost messed my pants 

Pat

That'll get your attention.  Same thing with me one morning at O'Dark-30 AM.  I heard them, a pair, up the creek and wondered what they would look like up close.  Be careful what you wish for...very soon something hit the stand, low, near the ground, and to my tortured mind was "clawing its way up the tree stand ladder."  The hair on the back of my neck stood up.  A HUGE bird then landed on the tree limb that supported my tree stand and about 3-feet from the back of my head.  I WENT INTO HIGH ALERT.  I slowly turned in its direction and faced a GHO.  It took off, hitting me in the face with the tips of its wings.  Coolest/most unsettling thing I have ever lived through...and I am sure I have "died" a couple of times or two from stuff in the woods.

[Lloyd Smale]

About 20 years ago i was bow hunting at camp and went out to my blind before the sun comes up and crawled up into my scaffold to wait for sun rise. When the sun started comming I started watching for deer. I patiently sitting and heard a limb crack to my right (ended up being a squirrel) but when i turned i was face to face with a big owl within arms reach of me. That owl had to have sat right there while i climbed up the scaffold and got situated and sat down. I scared me so much I about jumped out of the blind. When i stratled it took off and even scared me more as i thought for a second it was comming at me. I dont know what woud have startled me more, what happened or it it would have flyed off when I was climbing the scaffold!!

[longwinters]

That's pretty cool.  I have only seen a few owls while bowhunting...but one experience was watching an owl take a young squirrel on the ground.  I forget the name of the owl, but it was about 1ft tall.  Took it 3 times but it finally got the squirrel.
 
Long