Stay out of range of my treehouse or else!

[jomoco]

Talk about ornery old farts with razor sharp tools!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29605265/

Probably the absolute worst thing I've ever done in my long arboreal career is actually kill an owl that was attacking me in a palmtree with a chainsaw, an electric chainsaw!

I was only 16 years old, I was using a montgomery wards electric chainsaw, the electric extension cord tied to my saddle ofcourse.

The owl that attacked me that day was not fooling around even a little bit, it went for my eyes on the first pass, barely missing, scaring me so badly I anticipated the second pass literally cutting it's wing off with my saw sending spiraling to the ground.

And yes there were eggs hidden in an opening in the brown dead skirt just below the head of the 60 foot mexican fan palm in fallbrook. Everything went to the dump as usual.

I go to treemendous lengths to save all raptors and their nests these days, usually by putting their trees off for 6 months or so depending on the season. I also have the emergency raptor bird rescue society's hotline on my emergency contacts card. They have successfully saved a falcon and a hawk that have been in trees I've dropped from the ground, unaware they were there. Interestingly both birds were juveniles late in their flying lessons and a bit too tentative about getting started.

I plead guilty to teenage panic in defense of my eyes your honor!

As if our profession doesn't have enough dangers clawing at you!

jomoco

 

[SkwerI]

Amazing the stories we have in our respective histories. Sounds like that one made quite an impression on you, Jon.

I've done some volunteer work for the local audobon society 'birds of prey' center. I've re-nested several baby owls and red shouldered hawks.

 

[OTGBOSTON]

I hung some screech owl nests earlier this winter. We're supposed to put up some great horned owl nests later this spring.

I've never been attacked though...

 

[squisher]

Heh as a logger I've left trees and buffers for hawks/eagles before with little ones in the nest. I guess I'm a bit of a bird lover too.

Never spotted no spotted owls though.

 

[jomoco]

I thought caltrans took the bird issue a little too far with me about 4 years ago on the 163 freeway, it's a busy freeway and the job was an emergency caused by a burst waterline creating a huge sinkhole right next to the freeway!

The old line had to be dug up and replaced, this meant about 30 medium sized eucs along the freeway had to go pronto. The northern most last tree on the list had a fair sized birds nest in it, but over the course of days there I had already seen that it was a crow's nest, no big deal in my book and most assuredly not on the list of do not disturb birds.

But the caltrans inspector would not take my word that it was indeed a crows nest, and didn't want the tree touched until positive ID of the bird was confirmed.

So to finish the job on time, I take my camera, had the crane hoist me up above the rats nest, took pictures of the little baby rats with their orange mouths open and hungry, got back on the ground, and showed the digital pic to the caltrans wildlife biologist who said yup baby crows.

But apparently his caltrans boss liked baby crows and ordered that the removal of that one tree be postponed for 8 weeks.

All for stinking baby crows!

Only in crazy californy folks!

jomoco

 

[stig]

In the local woods here we have a buzzard ( Butoe buteo) that strikes at runners. And only runners, for some weird reason.
It has managed to cut the scalp open on several. Buteos are aprotected species here, so nothing to do about it.

The local running club has made it their mascot. They wear a t-shirt with a picture of the buteo on the front and 3 drops of blood on the back.

 

[SkwerI]

And since we're on the topic of raptors,here's an incredible picture slideshow that you might enjoy.

http://www.miguellasa.com/photos/sspopup.mg?AlbumID=1001578

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's an awesome site.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Cool...