I got attacked by an OWL last night on my run

Yea i got attacked twice within a minute by the a large owl. it grabbed onto my head pretty good. as the others said though grow some balls

There was a story about this on CNN or something like that this morning. Crazy. They are actually closing some of the trails because so many people have been attacked. Maybe he was trying to get your Tootsie Pop!

derhdffd wrote:

your comment about ducks is funny but you should know, those bastards are vicious among one another. a group of male ducks are known to gang rape females until they die... that isn't a joke either. they also resort to cannibalism among one another. all this is true. look it up.

i've seen mallard ducks raping a female and yes, it is disturbing.

Canadian Geese are very nasty and in large groups with young they can be very threatening. One took off after me, to apparently peak at the back of my head. I turned and yelled and it pretty much stopped in midair.

Reston Virginia has perhaps one of the best trail systems of any suburban town. I run on them often, and have seen quite a few owls on my runs. Particularly creepy is when I see them at dusk, and all can see is their outline against the horizon, and knowing that they see me with much greater clarity. I have never been concerned about any of them attacking me, however. The worst experience I have had with birds is with a certain species of blackbird in western Iowa/eastern Nebraska. These birds would not attack, but would fly and hover three to four feet above my head, swooping in front of me from time to time in what seemed to be an effort to guard their territory. Harmless, but really annoying, especially when the relative lack of scenery there made running difficult as it was.

I was running with a friend and he got attacked by an owl in Discovery park too. For real. Coincidence? I think not.

In honor of this thread, I thought I'd post this e-mail a friend sent:

So last fall, while out on

runs down here with the Vancouver boys, I was repeatedly warned, by one

Geoff Reid in particular, to watch out for owls when running at dusk. "The

owls man, they come out at night...they'll scalp your ass," Geoff would say.

"Hahaha, whatever man, thats such bullshit," I would scoff. And all fall I

would seem to run around early evening time in the extended set of trails

known as the UBC Endowment Lands, or at a loop encompassing Queen Elizabeth

Park, Nat Bailey Stadium, and the Little Mountain Sports Fields by my house.

Dozens of evening/dusk runs -- no owls.

So about a week ago, I am running through my usual Queen E Park loop and i

see this big ol' owl in this tree near me. I look over, the owl does that

crazy unhinged head loop thing that owls always seem to do on the National

Geographic specials. I stop, look up at the owl, and he/she/it looks back at

me, and that was it. No attack. Cool. Whatever.

Then last night, Friday night, I am again looping through Queen E,

approaching the same spot I saw the owl the week before. It's about 6:15 pm,

its pretty much pitch black out, and I am relying on my memory sensors to

know where I am on the winding trail, as I have done this loop dozens and

dozens of times.

All of a sudden I feel something sharp on the back of my skull. It feels

like someone mistook me for Jesus and is trying to slam a crown of thorns

onto the back of my head. I immediately think someone has just hit me with a

knife and I quickly turn to fight (for the non-runners reading this, when

running, you are more aggressive than usual) with my fists up and a loud

"WHAT!" Within half a second I realize there is noone there, but there is

something large that just landed in the tree above my head. Right as I

realize that it was the owls talons that just scalped the back of my head,

the damn thing pops off the branch, spreads it wings (size immediately

triples), and suddenly a very large and imposing silouhette of this beast of

the night is swooping directly at me.

My one thought: "You have to be shitting me."

I put my left arm up over my face, in particular my eyes, to act as a

defense shield. With the other arm, I swing wildly. The owl swoops away but

is not impressed, and returns at me double-speed from another angle. I throw

in a loud, "ARRGHH!!" to try to scare it off. The owl still doesn't seem to

really give a shit, and I have to duck and back up, almost falling over this

time, as the owl loops back up and plops down on another high branch jutting

out of a tree directly above my head.

At this point, part of me is indignant and raging, and wants to do battle

with this owl no matter what the cost. Then my non-neanderthal side kicks in

with, "How can you win this? Its pitch black, the most you're going to get

is a a bunch of owl feathers and maybe a cobbled owl toe, while it will

probably rip your thumb off, or at least gouge you enough so that you are

going to be spending your Friday night getting owl rabies shots at the local

hospital." And with that, with one arm still protecting my face and eyes, I

backpedaled out of the woods and booted it onto the nearest street. I

touched the back of my head, to see if there was any blood, and luckily all

I got out of this one was a minor scratch on my dome.

F-ing owls. As if this actually happens to people... I guess so.

Moral of the story: (A) Always listen to Geoff Reid, and (B) Owls are

gangsters in their natural habitats, so watch out.

JoggerGerry wrote:

You were running at 8:30 at night, that is why. You were attacked by a "Nite Owl." You should go back to Discovery Park again around 8:30 and when the owl attacks you again shake your fist and yell the 'Early to Bed' saying at him; You know, 'Early to bed and early to rise, And your gal goes out with other guys'.

Gerry you make me laugh

You were lucky. An owl will f*** you up, man.

I was home from college one summer and running on what I called the "nature trails" of McAlpine Park in Charlotte, NC. These are the trails off of the bike path away from the cross country trails. I had something large hit the back of my head, almost knocking me down, and felt a sharp scratch on my neck and shoulder. I thought either I was about to get attacked or a large tree branch had fallen on me. But when this huge owl swooped over me, I realized what had really happened. I had some pretty mean looking scratches where its talons had tried to grab hold of me.

The sky was dark and ominous my friend. A wiser more prudent man would have stayed in the safe confines of the well lit city streets. Sound judgement and personal restrain though have never been traits that I possessed.

I heard the reports of the giant killer owl; but, not only did they not deter me they seemed to serve to entice me more.

I entered the darkened woods trail leading to the area of the reported attacks. There was an excitement an adrenaline rush I experienced as I entered the dark abyss of the woods trail. This trail that I have taken many times during the day is transformed at night into something unknown and dangerous.

I noticed that my heart was beating faster and I was sweating more than normal. I knew the killer owl was out there but I didn't know where. It could see me, I knew it, but I saw just darkness.

I suddenly could hear the flapping of the wings getting louder and coming from above. I felt the pain of sharp talons ripping the flesh of my scalp, neck and ears. I fell to the ground feeling pain and warm fluid running down the back of my neck. I was stunned and dizzy but I heard the awful flapping of wings coming again.

This time I lounged up and grabbed the flying beast by the neck. Its talons again were ripping through my skin but I twisted that neck with every ounce of rage and strength that I possessed. I killed my attacker.

I lay there till morning and I runner named wejo came by but he never stopped to ask if I was OK. He jumped over me and kept running.

According to legend the owl came to take you to the next life. Write your will today!

Bad owls.

Here's a news report of an attack in the Seattle area.

"It feels like someone mistook me for Jesus and is trying to slam a crown of thorns onto the back of my head."

This has got to be one the greatest sentences ever written in regards to owl attacks.

I thought I was going to pass out from laughing so hard.

Yup, this exact same thing happened to me in Ravenna Park (Seattle) in 2004. I shit you not, an owl swooped down on me from behind and swiped my favorite Heps hat. I was very startled and thought that I'd simply gotten snagged on a low-hanging branch. It took me about a minute to realize there was a large own sitting in a tree with my hat in his talons. He or she seemed keen on swooping down again, and followed me out of the park.

Never got my hat back.

JoggerGerry wrote:

You were running at 8:30 at night, that is why. You were attacked by a "Nite Owl." You should go back to Discovery Park again around 8:30 and when the owl attacks you again shake your fist and yell the 'Early to Bed' saying at him; You know, 'Early to bed and early to rise, And your gal goes out with other guys'.

I almost pissed myself laughing so hard. Thanks Gerry.

Wow, this made the front page... I have never been attacked by an owl, but I did run by a dead one. I have also seen a duck getting raped. And I am slightly afraid of geese.

I'm about to go into college and am switching from my hs mascot of the Huskies, to my college mascot of the Owls. At first I thought of it as kind of a step down, but after reading this thread, and not seeing any threads about huskies attacking runners, maybe not. Also I have a pet huskie and she just sleeps all day. She'll catch small rodents occasionally, but so do owls.

of all things... wrote:has this ever happened to anyone else? does anyone know how to prevent it? like wearing brighter clothes or something?

One of my teams' runs goes by the burrow of several tiny but AGGRESSIVE burrowing owls. Most of the time they simply sit nearby and chirp loudly at passers by, but on a couple of occasions they have dive-bombed my runners. No real contact, and it caused the affected athletes to speed up - kind of an owl-induced fartlek...

I, however, have been pooped on by a duck while running. I was quite impressed by the duck's accuracy.