[EBB Sightings] (too) close encounters of the bird kind

I have been taking late afternoon walks at Huckleberry Preserve, forgetting how quickly the sun sets these days. I hurried along the loop, apologizing to the birds that I was disturbing from their roosts, and startling a number of Varied Thrush out of the brush. As I strode along the last bit of the upper trail, I heard the wake-up calls of great horned owls, so I stopped to listen...the deep bass hoots of the female, and the higher calls of the male. A second female called further up the canyon, and another owl species did, too, but alas, Dave Quady was not by my side to ID it by voice. 

As I paused along the trail, enjoying the twilight vista of Mt.Diablo in the distance, I cupped my ears and strained to hear more of the owl conversation floating up out of the canyon, manzanita thick around me. 
Suddenly, and I am not making this up, a bird flew down and landed on my head! I felt its claws in my scalp before I startled and then so did he! 
I had to laugh out loud with surprise, and I'll just bet that his little heart was beating pretty fast, too. 

Geez, that was a first! No clue what species it might've been, but it's heft and the glimpse that I caught as it flew away showed me that it was at least the size of a thrush; can't imagine what the heck he thought that he was landing on...guess that I really need to start brushing my hair better. Or something.

It's a wild, wild world; beats coming face to face with a feral pig on that narrow trail, but still, a little more intimate than I would've liked.

Debbie Viess, channeling Snow White?
Oakland