Unexpected wildlife in trees!

[Manco]

What have you came in contact with in a tree?
I guess we've all seen our share of squirrels in our immediate work area. I had one go all the way out on a long limb and ball up and hide. By the time I worked my way to the end it was just me and the squirrel with nowhere to go. He finally decided to make a quick exit back towards the trunk and right beside my boot.There was a split-second in there that I thought he would run up my leg.
One time climbing a pecan. About 15ft up I looked into hollow spot in trunk and was face to face with a huge owl.Eased back down a few feet and got on back side.
Had a leaning oak to take down. Squirrel nest looked unoccupied.Started taking apart to make sure and it had a big rat,(about 8'' long no counting tail). He just started walking down the trunk of the tree.About halfway down, he stopped and turned around and looked back for a few seconds, then proceeded on down the trunk.
Was cutting through hollow red oak limb and when the piece fell off ,half of what we call chicken-snake flopped out slinging blood everywhere. Looked inside out of curiosity and almost had the dead snakes live partner come out right into my face.
That's all I can think of right now except bees and hornets.

 

[tophopper]

Ive had a squirrell run and jump towards my face, I of coarse ducked, he landed on my back and ran right down my body and kept on goin to the ground. My wife was watchin, she saw it comin at me and said "look out", then she started laughin at me when i flipped out.
Another time, i had a pizzed off squirrel boxing at my throwbag, while i was trying to set a line. It was comical, id pull it up, he chase it, box it a bit and growl, Id let it down, he'd chase it, box at it and growl. It was very entertaining, the little bugger kept at it for at least 10 minutes, until that day I thought id seen it all.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I've pretty much ran across almost everything.

The latest was a big arse raccoon I had to beat outta the tree with my Zubat.

He was zonked out!

 

[GlennG]

Climbed a dead catalpa, about 15 feet up and fouond a colony of bats in a hole . Totolaly freaked me out when they started taking off for the shelter of branches in other trees. I climbed down and felled the tree instead of piecing it. I don`t like bats they freak me out. Fear of rabies or somthing........ :Eye:

 

[Manco]

I forgot about a cat I had to rescue one time. One of those situations where you want to help, but you know better. I took a pillow-case up to put the cat in to bring to the ground. I tied in above the cat and got to the limb he was on and he came right to me after a few here kitty kitties. So far so good.
I actually got the cat in the bag and was able to close the top right before he decided to unleash to ultimate cat howl, hiss, scratch, claw, raise hell you could ever imagine. He did that all the way to the ground(about 30') The pillow-case barely stayed intact.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hahahahahahaaa!!!

 

[tophopper]

I dont rescue cats no more, I have in the past and always seem to get scratched to beat hell. Then someone asked me once, "when was the last time you found a dead cat in a tree?"
They were right, never!

 

[jason j ladue]

newly hatched hoot owl.

 

[jason j ladue]

rescued a cat stuck in fir about 70' up. it had been there for two days. the closer i got to her , the further up she went. finally caught her. thought for sure i was gonna get a good scratching up. i was wearing my helmet w/ the face shield down. heavy jacket and welding gloves. but the dang thing finally just came right to me.i put her in the pillow case. tied her on the rope and lowered her. once they "let the cat outta the bag" it made a bee-line straight for the food and water dish...

 

[JonnyHart]

I refuse to mess around with racoons. I always feel bad making baby squirrels homeless on takedowns. Do the parents come back for them? We just move em out of the way, and finish the job. I tried taking one home before, but it died. Sorry to stray from the original topic, but this seems like the best time to ask.

 

[Old Monkey]

I have dislodged many baby squirrels(I'm not proud) and most of the time the mother squirrel comes back for them. I usually put them in another tree. I've found owls on a few occasions. I was chunking down a maple when I saw something furry run out of a hole just below the running saw. It was an opossum. He ran into another hole in the tree. We had to spray him with a garden hose to convince him to leave. My scariest encounter, or rather my most intimidating encounter was with a red tailed hawk. I was gaffing up a ninety foot tall euc. pole to set a line and all its branches were removed except the one at the top. Just before I reached the top this hawk starts circling the pole and shrieking. Then he lands five feet above me on the crotch that represents my only escape rout. I thought I was scrood! Fortunately, he flew away, perhaps it was the bad smell emanating from my drawers.

 

[tophopper]

I refuse to mess around with racoons. I always feel bad making baby squirrels homeless on takedowns. Do the parents come back for them? We just move em out of the way, and finish the job. I tried taking one home before, but it died. Sorry to stray from the original topic, but this seems like the best time to ask.

the mommas squirrells almost always come back and get em. When i have to dislodge the babies from a nest, if they survive the fall(usually do), we will round em up and put them in a shaded area nearby. Momma will hear them cry and come git em sooner or later.

I heard something intersting bout squiirrells recently, a female squirrell will return to her birthplace(if it still exists) to have ALL of her subsequent babies, and those female babies, well .........on and on and on.
Dam tree rats- I hate em!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

We evicted a condo of flying squirrils from an old rotten sulfer-bud hickory once.

 

[treeseer]

I don`t like bats they freak me out. Fear of rabies or somthing........ :Eye:

I got no compassion for squirrels--there's an overpopulation of them. Bats on the other hand are far more beneficial to us and far more endangered. If you evict bats you can call a local animal control outfit to adopt them.

I have an open offer to them to take any bat they remove from anywhere; they're beautiful when they swoop at sunset and they eat a ton of bad bugs.
I've killed a dog and a coon and a possum that were rabid. Never seen a rabid bat.

 

[Manco]

I cut two more snakes. I was cutting an oak tree that has been laying on its side since the last hurricane to hit our area. As I was cutting one of the limbs the first snake came outof a hollow nearly cut into 4 pieces. As I worked on down the limb, I found another coiled up inside the hollow. Both were about 6ft. long. Almost the same situation as in my earlier post about the snakes in the limb. I am not scared of snakes, but let me tell you, that is the last thing you expect to see coming out of a tree or limb that you are cutting on.

 

[fattyphatcakes]

this mama owl didn't like me in her tree. she sat there in the neighboring tree watching me until I left.

 

[tnttreeman]

A few times I've dropped hollow trees and had creatures come stumbling out, stunned from the shock. Squirrels alot, a screech owl once that I caught because it had a broken wing(the animal shelter people came and got him, now using him for educational display for elementary school kids), and a big raccoon. My wife was with me on that one. I'd dropped the tree and was bucking it, she was standing at the butt end. Out waddles this big raccoon, stops at her feet, and looks up at her. My wife just about dropped a load in her pants!! Then the raccoon wondered off. Wish I'd have had video of it.

 

[vharrison2]

This was not a take down but a relocation. We moved a palm from the front of our office to a house down street. Turns out a pair of doves were building a nest in it (it's that time of year), well, those doves are flat dumbfounded.They want to know where the heck their nest is, they just keep hanging around looking, like the tree is going to reappear. We think they are rebuilding across the street.

 

[pantheraba]

What have you came in contact with in a tree?

I once did a "reverse rescue" on a certain type of bird...unmentioned here. I put the critter back in the tree instead of taking one out.

The bird in question was discovered wandering around the neighborhood one day, could not fly and was prime rib for the local cats and dogs. It was about the size of a small chicken but could not fly yet...had apparently been bumped out of the nest by big brother. We made a special bucket with a perch inside it, I climbed the 120 foot poplar (with mama bird watching from very closeby) and put baby back to bed. Mama had supper waiting in the nest when I got there...a chipmunk.

I lowered the bucket back down and when I turned back to check on baby, she had already started supper! Note the entrails in the talons. We had tried to get her to eat worms with no luck while on the ground...a fly covered chipmunk was the perfect dinner.

This family of four still provides "air cover" for our neighborhood...when I recently took down a big pine they flew air cap all day, we even saw one make a diving run.

 

[texasnative]

nice photo of the hawkling! i found a mexican free tailed bat in a loblolly pine. i was clearing a lot and felled the tree, and while limbing it i noticed the bat, still asleep on the trunk.