had a hawk nearly take my face off.

I was sitting in a ladder stand on the edge of a large pasture. I'd been watching a hawk circling across the pasture. He kept landing in a tree about 300-400 yds away, and then flying back down to hunt some shoulder-high grass.

well after a while, I watched him fly out of the tree, coming toward me. I thought, hey this is cool, he's coming this way

about 200 yds out (halfway-ish), I think "hmm, wonder what he's after"

about 50 yds out, he's now over the short (ankle-high) green field planted in the corner of the pasture, I think "man, he's about to fly up in my tree!"

he get's about 15ft out and I think "Holy crap, he's about to land on this limb! [coming off the tree just over my head].

Now, up until this point, I'd not moved an inch b/c I wanted to see what he was up to. he'd come all the way across this field never once flapping a wing, but he was moving quick.

at this point, he was probably less than 5ft from my face, so I duck down in my seat as fast as I can. He freaked out when he realized I was there and started back-peddling and flapping his wings like crazy and flew up over my head. Close enough I could feel the wind coming off his wings.

All I can figure is maybe from across the field I moved my head slightly and he thought it was a squirrel on the side of the tree or something and was coming after it.

I think its been awhile since we have had a thread like this but what is the strangest thing you have seen or happened to you in the woods? For me it was a weird physical phenomena that occurred while I was hunting. I had placed a small ol-man climber in a medium height tree at the confluence of two creeks. I could only climb about 8-10 feet but I had good back cover and the tree was in full foliage. So I had been sitting in the tree about an hour and all the sudden I felt 3 0r 4 20 -30 second super quick vibration. The vibrations were supper fast frequency and they were coming from the tree. I thought I had climbed over a bee hive....then the leaves started falling. Every dang leaf on that entire tree was cast off. Tens of thousands of leaves all fell at once. I have never seen anything like that again in the woods...how about yall?

I was scouting/stalk hunting down a creek during December two years ago in hopes of finding a good crossing. This creek was about three lanes wide and had a lot of small sandbars. I walked out onto one sandbar to look at the deer tracks and noticed what I thought was a boot print. I thought well crap somebody else has the same idea I do (this was on public land), but after giving this thing a second look I can make out the first three toes of the print as well as a slight arch. My mind then went into what is somebody doing out here in thirty degree weather walking barefoot in a creek. I look further out on the sandbar and see the opposite footprint as well as a third footprint before it goes into thigh deep water. So not only is this person barefoot, but they must have got in the water. At this point I'm real confused, so I try to get a size one these things. To match the stride, I had to hop off one foot to reach the next footprint and the print itself was about the same size as my rubber boot which was roughly 14 inches by about 5.5 inches. On top of that, I could not get the same depth into the sand as these prints even if i jumped and pushed down hard upon landing. So this was a big, heavy barefooted man walking across a creek in thirty degree weather during deer season. I decided I didn't like this spot too much and walked back to the truck.

I also had an encounter with a hawk. Back around 8 years ago i was sitting in a climber about 18' up in a white oak that overlooks a creek bottom. Now i had previously patterened a few deer that would come up and out of the bottom and pass to the side of the oak at 15 yards and follow the trail to a green field close to dark. Well one day everything weatherwise just clicked into place so i went to go sit all day. Well after i ate lunch up in the tree i dosed off and was suddenly awaken and startled to a gust of wind by my head and wouldn't you know it what seemed liked the biggest hawk I'd ever seen landed less than a foot from my head. That joker didn't even flinch believe me or not when i woke up,jumped and looked at him. What seemed like eternity but was probably 3-5 seconds he just cool as all get out just flew off. I swear it was thinking and said to itself"it's practical joke time,hope he's wearing a harness."

Probably this guy

Not a hunting story, but down in my goat pen, there's a big Poplar tree with a Cooper's hawk living in it. Every time I'm outside, he follows me around my place or my oldest son's place (next door). He does the same thing with my son, but nobody else. Pretty much any time I'm outside, I can stop what I'm doing and look around, and he's usually within 25-30 feet of me, on a low limb, fence post, whatever, watching. I've turned around a few times and had him fly by within a foot or two of my face before. I have several pics of him hanging around, but can't post them from work, but 'Huntress has several, too.

I saw a huge meteorite come over one time about an hour before daylight just as I was about to get in my stand. I ain't talking about you're ordinary shooting star neither. I actually didn't see the ball of fire that others saw.....I only saw the sky light up and everything around me look like it was instant daylight....but a neon bluish color. I specifically remember looking across the cutover I was hunting and could see all the way to the other side. It lasted about 5-10 seconds and then went pitch dark again. I didn't know what the hell had happened. Scared the hell out of me. I ended up seeing it on the news later.....some gas station cameras had caught it on tape. This would have been around 15-16 years ago.

Reminds me of that crazy meteor shower last year. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. My buddy and I sat on the golf cart (where you and Otis parked) top of that hill and watched it for 10 minutes or so over a cup of coffee before going to stands. Truly amazing to watch

This was one single meteor that passed really close to the Earth and they apparently didn’t know anything about it until after the fact. It could be seen from multiple states across the southeast. When I say it cut the lights on….it was literally like flipping a light switch. I was looking at the horizon at the time and noticed a weird glow. No sooner than it had time to register “What is that?”…..it was like Whoooooof!!!!.....Total dark to instant daylight. I mean light enough to see for several hundred yards too…..5-10 seconds of neon blue daylight then Whoooooof!!!!....back to total darkness. Keep in mind that I’m out in the middle of the woods and don’t have a clue what just happened…..It would have been more settling to have actually seen the meteor. All I saw was the light it put off.

Y'all keep these stories coming. I love threads like this.

Not a hunting story, but...

Mrs. Irish and I grilled out and ate till we were full as ticks up at the cabin. Of course we had been drinkin' [Surprise, I know. ] and I'm up on the back deck about 2200 hours and I hear this sound like a man walking through my woods in the dark. Tromp, tromp, tromp...

So I walk over to the small cabin and get my high intensity flashlight and my 30-30 Carbine I keep in my truck and walk back over thinking this is a bear or Bigfoot, and I might just get to be in the 6:00 news. [One way or another... ]

So I start shining the light in the woods trying to get a bead on whatever it is and nothing. Mrs. Irish is peering over my shoulder, eyes wide. Still the sound... Tromp, tromp, tromp... Through the leaves. The light didn't scare whatever it was. It didn't care. Alright dammit!

So we walked around the cabin and into the woods in our flip flops, drink in one hand flashlight and 30-30 in the other until we get into a heavily wooded area and can barely see a few feet in any direction. Still the sound... Tromp, Tromp, Tromp... Whatever it is ain't skeered! We both looked at each other and realized that this would be a great place for an ambush.

It is about this time that discretion became the greater part of valor and we decided to back up towards the cabin and leave whatever it was alone.

Still don't know what that was that night.