On Rootok Island I was walking the beach at low tide. I came around a rock point and on a rock about 75-100 yards out in the ocean was a harbor seal with a pup. She had not seen or winded me, so I ducked down in the rocks to watch her and the pup for a while. It was the first pup I had seen that year. The rock she was on only stuck up about a foot to a foot and a half and was under water at high tide. After about five minutes or so, a bull steller sea lion came around the point, about 100 yards past the seal and pup. He was swimming with his head up and checking the wind. Hunting seal pups. There were a few other rocks sticking up and he was checking them on the way toward the seal and pup. While he was checking another rock about 25-30 from the seal and pup, she slipped into the water with the pup and stayed under for about 25 yards going in the direction the sea lion had come from. I saw her and the pup once again before they were past the point on the far side. The sea lion really looked the rock over that the seals had been on when he got to it, which gave her and the pup more time to slip away.

Here is one from this morning. He watched me make a set so I took his picture.

Bob, I had an almost identical encounter with a Great Horned Owl one night! I was calling coyotes with a hand call at night during a full moon without a light. With snow on the ground it was plenty bright. I set up under a juniper tree, my back against the trunk, at the edge of a clearing. I was only wearing a wool beany cap though - no hard hat. I had my 12 gauge with #4 buckshot in my lap. I had just finished my first series and was scanning. Suddenly, by instinct I jerked my shotgun barrel up in front of my face and the owl slammed into the barrell I still do not know if I saw, heard or just sensed it coming. It's a wonder I didn't soil myself! Had the adrenaline shakes for a minute thinking about it. Killed four coyotes that night too. I loved night calling with a full moon.

Got to tell another one. The fisheries biologist asked if I would help him set gillnets on Red Fleet Reservoir. I told him I would if I could bring my wife. She was very pregnant with our first son.(She had been having the false labor pains and we were even timing them to make sure it wasn't the real thing.) It was a perfect evening about sunset and the water was glassy calm as we idled into a bay to set a net. Suddenly, we all heard a loud pop and looked up above us. A peregrine falcon had killed a blackbird 50 yards above us and had it in it's talons. A big puff of black feathers floated down from the imact area as the peregrine carried the bird over to a little island a hundred yards in front of us. It was starting to tear the bird apart, as we watched dumfounded, when a golden eagle flew down and stole the bird and carried it off.

Got two involving birds.

1. Sitting on stand in a oak patch. Really high up and perched on an elbow sticking out. Dusk came and I couldn't see well enough to shoot a bow. I get up and start packing to come down and BAM, I get hit on the left back side of my head pretty hard by something. Thinking it was a bat, I reserved myself to rabies shots and cursed the bat. A minute or two later, BAM I get hit on the back right side of my head. This time I am thinking I better hurry up and get down before I get swarmed by dracula's air force. A minute or two later and BAM I get hit on the back left side of my head again. This time I am ticked!! I sit down and start looking at the horizon to my left. I finally find the culprit. It was a tiny screech owl maybe 6-7 inches tall. I pointed at him and get an eye on him. I stood up and started repacking. I looked up constantly to keep visual on my enemy.

I looked down and then looked up and I never heard a wisp. He was wings out full talons getting ready to lock onto my face. I only had a fanny pack with minimal stuff so down to the earth it launched and I burned a blister on my hand lowering my bow to the ground.

Walking back to the truck I let my partner (yes I had a witness!!) know what had happened. He laughed while saying, You what?? So back at the truck he inspects the back of my head and sure enough, blood had been running down my neck and dried and he laughed and laughed.

I respect owls and their dead silence, but that one almost made one more flight than landing that night.

2. I was turtle trapping a 10 acre pond and doing extremely well on big turtles. While setting, I watched a raptor land in the water very abruptly. I thought it had been shot or was sick or something. Why in the world would a raptor land in the water. He struggled to stay afloat so I reserved myself to watching nature take it's course. Next thing I know this bird is flapping hard and water is flying. Then he took flight from the water very distressed and flapping his wings for all he had. The bird got into the air about 40 feet and I swear he stopped flying, shook like a dog, and went back to flying. He had a flat perch in his talons and turned the fish head first for better aerodynamics and took off flying. It was my only encounter with an osprey and how they catch fish. It was too cool.