This story headline got my attention last night. I mean, seriously, birds of prey attacking Clayton people is pretty unusual and the descriptions of the attacks are horror movie worthy.
"When he grabbed me the first time I turned around. He was just above me. His claws were there, the talons. We were making eye contact. It was horrible. You could hear the wings…and then I ran across the street and he came after me. Then I came back across the street again. I did a zig-zag all the way up the street. He continuously came after me."
"The thing that has stayed with me is that sound that it made when he was scratching my skull. It was awful."
"An owl rammed the back of my head, left scratches and a bump."
And more like this. There was uncertainty about what kind of bird was doing this, an owl or maybe a hawk.
A representative of the Wild Bird Sanctuary advised: "running or walking with a shiny, Mylar, balloon or even a cap with cutout of large, white eyes on the back of it to throw off the bird's element of surprise and keep it away."
I'm not sure too many people in Clayton will be making large white eye cutouts to paste onto a cap, but you never know. A clever entrepreneur might be able to make some money selling these.
Back in 2010 we had some owls on the seminary campus who had babies which ended up settling in a big tree right outside our bedroom window. Every night for some months in the summer the young owls screeched to high heaven while they waited for the parents to bring them fresh kill for food. It was interesting and also disturbing.
This experience has me believing the birds attacking Clayton people are owls. Owls are night creatures, they kill and feed during that time while hawks are daytime birds. Here is a link to a blog post I did back in 2010 about our owls and the local couple who tracks them every year. "The man told me that you have to be very careful not to get between the parents and the owlets at feeding time, the parents can get very angry and violent."
Even though Fall seems an odd time for baby owls, this may explain why they're attacking people. The young are nearby.
I also made a short video of one of the parent owls sitting on our chimney surveying the area for prey and protecting his young.