Nature’s a mother
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: Basil
09-Mar-25
Found this poor bugger the other day. Not sure if he just died & ended up like that or maybe was swooping in for a kill & messed up. I’ve found numerous deer hung on fences etc. How about some examples of what others have found.
From: olddogrib
09-Mar-25
Redtail hawk, I presume? I have found more than one at the base of a bridge abutment with a broken neck where it appeared it had "locked radar" on a smaller bird and tucked wings to dive for the kill, but the prey must have executed a successful evasive maneuver at the last millisecond and the hawk never saw the head-on collision coming! I have a cap on my chimney and about 15 yrs. ago the hawk made the mistake of try to follow a tweetie bird through the opening. My wife called me at work and said she there was a bird as big as a chicken flapping above our fireplace. I said "sure there is dear, I'll come home at lunch and evict 'ol Foghorn Leghorn"! I opened the damper and a very pissed off redtail came out of there like a "bat out of h**l! Led me on a merry chase all over the house getting soot on everything with the missus screaming, lol! I found Tweetie dead above the damper after the excitement died down...the things we do for love!
From: Mo/Ark
09-Mar-25
Probably close to 20 years ago now, i was in an oak, looking for an early season deer. I moved wrong or something, and a squirrel about 10 yards away started barking at me. He was on about a 12 inch long broken off limb, with his back to the trunk of this huge oak. As he is chattering away, this whoosh goes right by me. Huge owl slams into the trunk of that oak tree at Mach 3.
Both of them tumble out of the tree 25 feet to the ground. Nothing happens for about a minute while I am trying to process what just happened. About that time, the owl came too, and jumped on the squirrel. He sat there for a few minutes, then flew off with his prize. I swear he was flying sideways through the woods.
He was laser focused, and kamikazed himself into that oak to get that squirrel.
From: Zbone
09-Mar-25
Ouch...
From: scent
09-Mar-25
Talk about a hard landing!
From: olddogrib
09-Mar-25
Also, I no longer doze off in a tree stand wearing this headgear anymore! I've opened my eyes more than once just in time to throw an arm up at an owl or hawk closing in on my eyes with talons extended. Wonderfully warm, but just ain't worth blindness or the fall!
From: Dale06
09-Mar-25
I buddy of mine got in a tree stand in the pre dawn dark, years ago. After sun up he happened to look up and saw a dead bald eagle in the top of the tree, with a steel trap on its legs.
From: Basil
09-Mar-25
No pics but I have found a deer in a crevice. Also deer, moose, a horse and a cow that have went through thin ice. Also swans & pheasants that have hit power lines.
From: JB
10-Mar-25
Found this one about 3 blocks from my house. Had to be a horrible way to go.
From: Zbone
10-Mar-25
From: jons
10-Mar-25
My old home had a big picture window that ruff grouse would fly into it and break their necks, excellent eating and saved on shells, good indicator of the population for the year.
From: Basil
10-Mar-25
Yeah John same at my house growing up. When the Mountain Ash berries got over ripe they flew into windows like drunken college kids. ;^)
From: Beendare
10-Mar-25
Dang Zbone, Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.....
From: Painless
11-Mar-25
Don't have a pic but a squirrel was hanging upside down about head high in a Bradford pear tree in my mom's yard. Went out to investigate and realized he was hanging by his scrotum, i.e., it and his testicles had lodged between a fork in the tree. Heck of a way to go.
From: Sunset
11-Mar-25
Kinda like this unfortunate bushy tail!
From: Basil
11-Mar-25
What a way to go.I think I’d rather have a tree fall on my head. ;>)
From: Stubbleduck
11-Mar-25
Reference the squirrel pictured above......I wonder what the actual, physiological cause of death might have been?
From: Cheesehead Mike
11-Mar-25
Working on a survey crew over 40 years ago and I found a dead Great Horned Owl laying next to a single strand of barbed wire stretched between two trees. I'm guessing it hit the wire and broke it's neck. It's feet and talons were huge.
From: Bohunr
12-Mar-25
Years ago I was trying to shoot a grouse with my bow right at dark while elk hunting. The bird flew off before I could shoot so I raised my hand mimicking a pistol and said "BANG".All of a sudden there was a poof of feathers and the bird went down. Shocked, I walked up to the dead bird a little puzzled.That is until I looked up and saw a wire that Years before had been stretched between two trees. Unfortunate for the grouse, but fortunate me.Tasted pretty good.
From: olddogrib
12-Mar-25
Stubbleduck, come on....the same "physiological cause of death" we'd all choose. Whip out the .45 and blow our brains out!
From: greenmountain
12-Mar-25
I suspect the cause of death was not directly the obvious. My best guess was heart failure from hanging upside down with severe pain. It is kind of like hanging in your safety harness after falling out of your tree stand.
From: deerslayer
13-Mar-25
Came across this at someone’s lake house years ago….. very sad way to have to go out.
From: olddogrib
13-Mar-25
deerslayer, that's a bit of a head scratcher. It not lke the front end of the deer made it through those narrow bars and both hind legs got wedged... any theories? Are the bars open at the top and it almost cleared it?
From: APauls
14-Mar-25
Same hawk 4 months later
Same hawk 4 months later
Very similar. Think it came down for a rabbit or something in swamp and got wedged in a Y shaped branch. Just struggled till it died. Checked on it every few weeks and in spring it rotted away and stuff ate it
From: APauls
14-Mar-25
Two years to the date exactly after finding that hawk I ran into a great horned owl this past year that had just recently broken a wing. He was still in good health and ran quite quick through thick underbrush so I just let it go. Great horned owl, and it made some very interesting loud clicking sounds with its beak.
From: APauls
14-Mar-25
At our lodges we've got chain link fenced compounds. Our guests were enjoying watching an arctic fox mosey around when some ptarmigan came flying through in high winds and went right through the chain link fenced and separated their bodies into multiple pieces. THANK YOU said the fox and cleaned them up lickity split lol.
From: Corax_latrans
14-Mar-25
The other antler is under the log.
From: priley
15-Mar-25
I'm thinking someone hung the squirrel like that for a meme pic or something.
From: olddogrib
15-Mar-25
priley, most likely his wife!
From: BULELK1
15-Mar-25
I was driving home from a trip up to Wyoming and I saw this Muley doe right off the pavement hung-up in the barbwire
From: BULELK1
15-Mar-25
I got into my truck toolbox and got some cutters out and hiked up to her and cut the barbwire, man, she was gone lick~ity ~ split!
Thanks for this thread, Basil,
Robb
From: Basil
15-Mar-25
Many years ago I was deer hunting late season in Tamarack swamp. There was a mucky river running through it. That evening several foxes went over to some dark object protruding above the ice. When I got down I checked it out & found a dead horse. Went through the thin ice into the muck. Thrashed a good sized hole in the thin ice but died with its chin on the ice.
From: t-roy
15-Mar-25
This guy must’ve been sleeping during geometry class. A buddy came across this on a creek on his farm.
From: Corax_latrans
15-Mar-25
Most overbuilt deadfall trap ever!
But might be where we got the idea….
From: Zbone
15-Mar-25
Once came across a domestic ewe sheep tangled in a Megaflora rose, I was able to untangle it while still alive...
From: grizzley21
22-Mar-25
someone else found this,,,,,, that's gotta to hurt
From: Basil
22-Mar-25
Ouch. No winner there
