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Yes you heard it right , I have walked down from objects because of wind, visibility, fear, but on Monday we climbed down from a chimney because of something else.

The story is this we were in Monterrey on a deserted factory with a 110 mt chimney which happens to have a huge round kind of concrete Donut at the middle, this donut structure is like 5 meters tall and inside of it has a passage that goes around the chimney, the stair comes inside of this donut and continues 5 meters to the top and you can continue climbing.

Jumper "1" was first , jumper "2 " was second and I was third , so as jumper one is almost at the donut she sees a nest on a big pipe next to the ladder and points it to us, this nest is some 60 cm wide and some branches were huge, there was no bird on the nest so we thought all was cool , seconds later I hear a scream and jumper "1" is climbing down as fast as possible, she said there was an owl inside of the donut and flew right infront of her , so she was not going to continue.

At this point it's only jumper "2 " and me still on the ladder, we discuss what to do and I tell him well let´s at least take a look maybe we can climb without being noticed, jumper "2" climbs to the donut and as soon as he peeks inside he yells " Oh shit oh shit" and immediately climbs down to my level, he told me the owl was right there next to him , when I asked how far inches , meters? he told me " dude right there 5 inches " so I had to take a look myself I climbed inside of the donut and there it was at eyelevel a huge white Harry-potter kind of OWL Spreading it's wings , I froze for a second and climbed down as fast as I could looked to me like he wasn´t scared of us and maybe was even thinking about attacking us. This Owl was huge at least 40 to 50 cm tall and with the span of its wings it looked very intinidating, I was more scared of the OWl and what it could do to us if we climbed into his territory than of the jump itself.

So I don't know much about owls but I know that they eat meat they have big claws , capable of hunting mice rats and even rabbits, so holding on to a ladder while being attacked by an angry OWL can really modify your face features.

Next time maybe we can bring a mice and throw it in like bait but for the time being this chimney has been closed until the OWL decides to leave. HA HA HA

Cheers
Gabo

Gabo, I've never been so freaked out on GETTING TO an exit point as I have with you. You sure know how to properly initiate los gringos to some MexBASE

As Chris said, a creature made for flight had defeated those who merely try... this time.

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Thats hilarious.
Maybe go up with some dead mice next time and try and lure him away from where you want to jump.....although he'll then be expecting that everytime on future visits !

I hear they "taste like chicken".


Seriously, I think it speaks volumes that you're willing to back down rather than disturb this animal.

Hahaha, it was more like disturbing us rather than vice versa.

Yeah its amazing how fearless some birds are you find on tall things, one time on an 700foot antenna i had a bird shit on me repeatedly and peck at my hands as i tried to climb past him on the ladder a few nudges wouldnt even make him fly away. i literally had to push him off the ladder. there were no nests around either which i checked for first.

The incubation period for the eggs is about a month, no matter what species of owl you saw. The fledging period for the young will be anywhere from one to three months, which entirely dependent on the species of the owl you saw.

If I were to guess, you've either got a somewhat confused Barred Owl (strange place for one to nest) or a Spotted Owl.

You're right not to disturb it, but in my experience with owls, they're very gentle with humans.

Bring a gun and shoot that son' bitch...thats how we get 'er done down here in Texas.