# Animals falling from trees



## Burvol (Feb 2, 2008)

Has anyone ever fell a tree with an animal in it? I have multiple pine squirells, a few hornets nests, a flying squirell, and numerous bird nests to my name, all in shame. But, they all lived! Except the defensless bird chicks that died.


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## Spotted Owl (Feb 2, 2008)

Does half an elk calf count? Awhile back we were cuttin around Big Tom Folley out of Elkton, while bucking I found a calf kinda weaved in the branches. All I found was from the shoulders forward. It had been there for a few days I think how far up it was kept us from smelling it. When the wood was down I could smell it before I got to it.

Thats the only animal life that I can think of, or that stands out to memory anyways.


Owl


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## 2dogs (Feb 2, 2008)

Nothing more than birds though back in High School I did find a guitar way up in a tree. I've also dealt with a few protestors. One lady has said she is going to chain herself to the trees we will taking out during our yearly flood control project. I'm probably not the best person to deal with protesters, most of whom are grey haired old ladies. We also deal with a lot of bums sleeping in the parks and river bed. You would think running a saw 3' from a sleeping bum would wake him up but nope. A boot in the ass does wake him up.


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## Gologit (Feb 2, 2008)

I've never had any animals come out of the trees. A sharp-shin hawk gave me a bad time one day, though. Buzzing me just inches away and screaming at me. I looked up in the tree I was about to drop and there was a big nest up there...maybe she had chicks. It wasn't much of a tree anyway so I just left it. Hawks are fun to watch.


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## sILlogger (Feb 2, 2008)

squirells, raccoons, possums, flying squirells, birds....ive pissed off ALOT of squirells!!!

o yea...ive got into some honey bees to......that is always a treat


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## goatchin (Feb 2, 2008)

i personaly havent but a guy my sister goes to college with was home for a weekend and was fellin a ash tree for firewood. when the tree hit the ground he heard a whole ruckus of screamin and then saw two coon come out of a crotch in the top of the tree...he said it scared the livin day lights outta him


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## mayor (Feb 2, 2008)

Knocked down a squirrel nest in a oak once....heard screaming.....found squirrels in various states of growth in the same nest.....we put them all back in the nest and sat the nest up in a small tree next too the one we cut.....2 days later there was a brand new nest way up in the tree and the occupants were gone.
Dont know if momma moved em on up or ?. We never found any dead afterwards though.


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## redprospector (Feb 3, 2008)

I can't recall droping a tree with a critter in it, we used to have to run the elk out of our strips once in a while before we could start working though.

I have hit 2 Mexican Spotted Owl's with my pickup. Their stupidity would explain their place on the endangered species list. 

Andy


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## Burvol (Feb 3, 2008)

boboak said:


> I've never had any animals come out of the trees. A sharp-shin hawk gave me a bad time one day, though. Buzzing me just inches away and screaming at me. I looked up in the tree I was about to drop and there was a big nest up there...maybe she had chicks. It wasn't much of a tree anyway so I just left it. Hawks are fun to watch.



Good call my friend, I am a huge fan of birds of prey.


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## slowp (Feb 3, 2008)

cutters have told stories of squirrels. Sometimes they live, sometimes they don't--the squirrels that is. I saw a couple vacate a snag in a hurry. The squirrels barely made it down in time. One time came across a cutter who was moving a baby owl (not spotted) around to keep it out of the way. It had fallen out of a tree. The best falling animal was in my backyard and has nothing to do with logging. Two raccoons were fighting in a spruce about 30 feet up. It sounded pretty ferocious. One came tumbling out and hit the ground. It staggered up, and started staggering towards my deck and house.
At this point, I have to grab my dog, who is about to go through the sliding door screen and wants to take on the raccoon. I put the dog in another room go out and yell and I'm thinking 12 gauge time except I live in town and it wouldn't go over too well with the neighbors. But, the coon comes to his senses and turns around and staggers slowly off into the woods. Since I didn't smell any badness, and my dog didn't drag any carcass or roll in one, I think the coon might have survived a while longer.


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## ropensaddle (Feb 3, 2008)

squirrels both flying and running,coons,birds of many feathers,
bee,s of many stingers,and even a few snakes but I have been in
way too many trees in my life. The worst one was in Conroe Tx
where a coral red touching yellow, slithered out above me and 
brushed me on his way down to my ground man!! There was a very
small bird nest and the snake must have been eating a chick.


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## Festus Haggen (Feb 3, 2008)

I've only found bird nests, the squirrels usually take off when I start hacking on their tree. Friend of mine was clearing for a quarry, found a baby raccoon in one of the trees. Cute, but definitely still a wild animal. Turned it over to a local wildlife place, they still have her there.


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## hammerlogging (Feb 3, 2008)

Squirrels, Flying squirrels, hornets (thought I was going to die, but all worked out), once a wintertime hive of honey bees, undoubtedly some birds. Once found a pissed off yellowjacket 6' up in a small hollow stem- strange becasue they usually live underground. One winter a 3 1/2 foot black snake was about forty feet up in a hollow limb in a scarlet oak, that took my breath away as well- it was hanging out of the broken limb as I was limbing out the tree. Down here we have cave crickets that'll live in hollow stems and it can be real freaky- cut a hollow tree down and like 400 creepy cave crickets crawl out of the tree and all over, really creepy. And ants.


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## oldirty (Feb 3, 2008)

Burvol said:


> Good call my friend, I am a huge fan of birds of prey.



i can only hope you feel the same about the buzzard.


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## lxt (Feb 3, 2008)

My Father while working Line Clearance for Asplundh(years ago) did a huge Sycamore tree, they found baby owls in it!! the removal was video taped from start to end, My dad called the Park Service which came out & took the owls, all crew members were given a commendation by the national park service!!

was really cool not 1 owl died/killed, they`re cute lil buggers!! rare to see as stated by the Ranger!!

Me I get the squirrels, bees, birds, caterpillars & a crotch of coon crap to put my hand in while climbing...........nothing out of the ordinary!!!

LXT............


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## XJWoody (Feb 3, 2008)

*Not sawing, but...*

Were out boundary surveying a farm, and came upon a hollow stem (maybe 20" DBH, 25-35' tall) with a hole at the base.

My boss, being the board-certified braniac that he was, said something like "I wonder if anyone's home?" and wound up and put a heck of a whollop on the tree with his bush axe. 

About a 1/10 second later (before the echo faded) a big ole coon shot up out of the top, came flying down, and hit the ground running! It was one of those deals where ya don't know whether to run like crazy or stand real still. It all happened so fast we just stood there agape. That beast sure looked big as it was coming in for landing. I can only imagine how :censored: up a coon-skin cap would feel with the angry coon still attached. I would still be laughing if it had zeroed in & put a scalping on Mark.

After the dust settled, and we got our wits back, I told him "Hey man... Um, howsabout not doing _that_ any more?"

Other fun surveying was honeybees, yellow jackets, sneaky snakes, and one mad cow. Never got into or even saw a hornets' nest (plenty of lone fliers but they always seem to just do their little thing & fly on)


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## cjk (Feb 3, 2008)

This last summer I went to cut down a big oak that died. I took a brush hog to clear an area to work in of weeds and tall grass. So I get done cutting weeds and start looking the tree over deciding how to fell it the next day and I noticed a hole in the tree next to it 30-40 feet up. In that hole were a bunch of coon faces watching me. Pretty cute how they were all pilled on top of each other trying to look out. The next day I go out to cut it down and bring my camera to get a pic of the critters but they were gone or didnt come out.


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## 056 kid (Feb 4, 2008)

giving squirrels moderate concussions daily, except on weekends.


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## Basica Guru (Feb 4, 2008)

When I was a kid my dad, uncle and I took out a big hollow tree. Can't recall what it was. When it was on the ground, I started limbing, Dad started at the top and my uncle started from the base. 
 
After about 15 minutes my uncle came over too me to ask me to do something. We were kind of watching my Dad when a good sized bundle of fur shot out from the chunk he had just cut off.

Dad about broke a leg jumping back. My uncle and I looked at each other and asked "What was that?" We looked in the log and found a coon tail, cut off just about at the butt.

All we can figure is when the tree hit the ground it scrambled the coons brains for a few minutes. When it came to, there was a saw running in front, rear and the side of it. I guess when the tail came off, it couldn't wait any longer!

I would like to have heard that coon explaining to his buddies what happened.


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## Buzz 880 (Feb 4, 2008)

Well i'm cuttting 3 miles of road right now and on Fri i was walking out for the day one of the blasters stoped me and asked me to cut down a hemlock tree.I told him i was done that part already he said there is a porkeypine in the top and were going to blast no mats he said the rock would kill him for sure.So i cut it the porkeypine road it out to the bottom i had to push him off the top with a big stick i think he was scared sh.t less he finally let go and took off.Cutt lots with hornets and squiells as well.


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## Jerry Lord (Feb 4, 2008)

i was attacked by a black snake 52 feet in the air doing some town work a few months ago threw the bastard to the ground and let the younger fellers take care of it..


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## Mikecutstrees (Feb 4, 2008)

*Honey bees*

I took down a 24" eastern hemlock last year that had a huge hive of honey bees in it. The homeowners called a guy and he vaccumed and saved most of them then screened off the hive in the early am and I took down the tree. There were alot of bees around while I was chunking it down though. It was interesting cutting off the last chunk above the hive while my spikes were vibrating from the po'd bees. I dropped the stick so the hive was upright, worked hard to make sure it didn't roll over but it still split and many po'd bees got out. I only got stung once that day but my groundie got stung 3 times and " Didn't wanna do no more" He looked like he was going to cry. So we called it a day. The bee guy put a 10' section of 24" hemlock filled with bees in the back of an F-250 and left. What a day. Got a nice tip though.


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## Cowboy Billy (Feb 17, 2008)

My dad and brother bought 80 acres last year and I was pushing in a trail with a 550 case dozer. I see something fall next to the cab. Look over and see a little baby porcupine about the size of a football wandering off.


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## smokechase II (Feb 17, 2008)

*Kind and gentle*

A government agency I work for used to be known for 'disposing' of porcupines.

A co-worker, sometime ago on a forest not to be named, saw a porky up a mid-sized pine. He climbed the tree and used a stick to push the 'varmit' from the limb that he was on. Contact with the ground was fatal.

However, my co-worker felt a poke in his lower bicep while climbing up, (but before he got to the porky). Couldn't find anything unusual on the ground and continued on with his life.

A week later a broken off quill came out of his back above the scapula - near the shoulder. That thing coulda hit a nerve or major vessel in its travels.


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## smokechase II (Feb 17, 2008)

*Other tree animal accounts*

Here are two other animals in tree accounts that I saved in a powerpoint years ago.
I got these accounts from AS and they have been shortened a bit:



"_I hit a family of snakes in a 40 inch oak tree once. At first when I saw blood on the chain I thought that it hurt myself again ’cause I took a chunk out of my knee with a Poulan 2 months earlier. I checked myself out and then started to pull out the remains of 3 or 4 Gardner snakes, (not sure ’cause they were so mangled). 
Other than that I have had a bunch of squirrels run at me and that’s about it."_


************************

…. "_half way through the chain binds up, I pull it out to find bits of hair and bloody stuff. Really nasty, turned out to be a ’possum. We've also found many snakes, squirrels, raccoons, rats, owls, and bats. My crew called me the "butcher"… 
I had a rat jump onto my chest while trimming a palm. I was on the top rung of a 30' ladder and tied in_" ....


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## Dibbs (Feb 18, 2008)

Found a bat in the middle of a rotten apple tree.
I just blocked it while it stood and pushed the rings onto the ground, it was starting to get dark but I noticed something on the ground moving when stacking the limbs and rings for collection another day. Next thing a Bat jumps up, flaps around my head for about 30 seconds then decides his house isn't really fit to live in anymore then takes off. He was lucky, he couldn't have been more than 6 inches from the wrong end of an angry MS440!


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## LTREES (Feb 18, 2008)

I've had a number of tree rats, one that would not leave the tree. But the time that sticks in my mind was a dangerous hickory ( 3' hole of rot in the bottom,english ivy all over, a crack 10' tall 2" wide) We roped out the top very gingerly, pull off about 15' and it was hollow. About a 12" hole in 18" dia. trunk. i looked in and could not see the bottom. I figured enough is enough lets drop it. The tree just fit where we were working (about 45' or so )
we cut the wood into FP lengths and my buddy started to run from his last cut. there it came out, the biggest raccoon I've ever saw. it just waddled and barked out of sight. this thing could have eaten my face off. this was only a stick when I looked down the hole.:jawdrop:


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## rtrsam (Mar 3, 2008)

I had an event that was kind of funny a few years back. I was over near Tahoe with a couple other guys taking out a good sized red fir. It was leaning back over a building, so I just limb-climbed it up a ways and set a choker. Attached a line to the choker, out to a block at the base of a tree and back to a fire truck equipped with a big hydraulic PTO winch. Partner put in a face, and back cut and then gave me the high sign and I winched it over. Right about the time the tree started to move good, something came flying out of the top of the tree...right into my windshield. A big old flying squirrel was clinging to my windhield wiper with a real crazed look. He stayed there for a couple minutes before he took off.


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## Ed*L (Mar 3, 2008)

My usual "passengers" are Raccoons. My woods is way overpopulated with the damn things.
If I think the tree is occupied I'll slip the 9mm in my belt. Fell the tree, drop the saw, draw the pistol.

Ed


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## jpvjr (Mar 19, 2008)

Burvol said:


> Has anyone ever fell a tree with an animal in it? I have multiple pine squirells, a few hornets nests, a flying squirell, and numerous bird nests to my name, all in shame. But, they all lived! Except the defensless bird chicks that died.



Yep, I'm cursed in 2 ways, 1 I can't seem not to get a bees nest to not fall on me, & 2 where I am , copperheads are. (ground level).


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## trax (Apr 10, 2008)

A friend killed a fisher 2 years ago in a big hemlock. Fisher population around here is way up probably due to lack of trapping.


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## BlueRidgeMark (Apr 10, 2008)

Not me, but my Dad knocked a black bear and her cub out of a tree way back when. (Early days of WWII). He was driving a dozer, clearing for a road in B.C., and Mrs. Bear didn't like it much. A .303 calmed her down okay, and baby became the camp pet til he got too big.

Then he became dinner!


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