[obol] Danger at a "hide"

[Alan Contreras]

You must look too much like a comfortable shrub these days, Otis !

Count your blessings - Steve Mlodinow had a Lewis's Woodpecker land on his
head at Malheur HQ by grasping the back strap of his baseball cap.  We
encouraged the woodpecker to check for grubs (which would have explained a
lot) but it sat for a moment and lurched off into the trees.

-- 
Alan Contreras
EUGENE, OREGON
acontrer at mindspring.com


> From: otis swisher <ghoti5 at hotmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 23:22:21 +0000
> To: <obol at lists.orst.edu>
> Subject: [obol] Danger at a "hide"
> 
> Danger at a "hide".
> I prefer the British "hide" to the hunter's term "blind".
> Mostly, the hides at Cabin Lake Guard Station, north of Ft. Rock city, Lake
> Co. are dark inside.  But, the door jam at Guzzler #1 has settled so that a
> long thin Isosceles triangle forms, apex down and base about 6" opening at
> the header.
> 
> To look out through the small windows, benches permit sitting so one's face
> can be close to the opening.  12 to 15 inches is comfortable for me.
> 
> However, when the Cooper's Hawk came in, the 25 or so small birds scattered.
>   One bird, scattered through the window, close enough to provide "prop
> wash" to my  right temple.  Then, it passed on through the blind and out the
> crack in the door.
> 
> Whoa! is a good term to use at a time like that.
> 
> Two days later, no COHA but two birds at different times came past my head
> on the "scatter": the first's wing  tip touched my right temple, the second
> briefly grasped the hair atop my head.
> 
> If either bird had struck me full in the face...well,  I'm glad I have
> tempered lenses in my glasses.
> 
> Moral: be careful when using any "hide" to observe birds.
> 
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