txRUNNERgirl wrote:
I have also seen a duck getting raped. And I am slightly afraid of geese.
Geese are nasty birds. You are right to be afraid of them. Canada Geese are particularly nasty.
One summer I was working at a summer camp. We were walking by the lake and a duck obviously in heat comes waddling out and is absolutely being attacked by about six drakes at once. An impromptu lesson for the kids that day. Those were some tough questions to answer.
canadian geese will hiss and chase you but they can do little damage to an adult. i wouldn't want a little kid around one of those things though.
was it a 'night owl'?........stay away from its nest
I've had to get bats out of houses on several occasions. Best way I've found is to get a towel or blanket and hit it while it is flying. Once it is on the ground it is not too difficult to get it out (dead or sometimes alive). I can't imagine trying to chase it around inside a Wal-Mart or other large building.
to Old Man Wind:
thanks for posting my story brotha... when i saw this link on the letsrun front page, i was about to go back to my emails and find that one... just so everyone knows, i, carmin mazzotta, have also been attacked by swans at a place called beaver lake in the city of asheville, north carolina... and swans are deadly... when they hiss and charge you, their deadly beaks are about right equal with the crotchal regions of a 5'10'' male. leonal manzano may just take one in the ribs, and mottram may take it on the kneecap, but for a good number of us, these supposedly sweet white birds can be deceptively lethal to our reproductive capacities...
(note: i have successfully evaded all swan charges to this date and am still in complete possession of my particulars)
Abacus wrote:
I was pretty freaked out and looked all around me because I hadn't heard a thing, and I looked up and saw a big owl flapping away
That happened while I was mt. biking. All I saw was the shadow on the ground. I looked up and the owl had probably a ten-foot wingspan. It was only a few feet above me. It was truly awesome. I never heard a thing, and was grateful not to be a rabbit.
happened to two of my teammates.
DUDE: No way! This exact thing happened to me at Discovery Park on a summer run a few years back. It was around the same time of night too, between 7-8pm I think.
I though somebody had came up behind me and grabbed me...before I could even turn around I saw something out of my peripheral vision on both sides...the extended wings of an owl. THEN, it flew up into a tree in front of me and stared at me. I had stopped, and when I started to run it opened its wings and stood tall, like it was about to pounce again.
I had some shaggy hair at the time, my friends joked that it must have looked like an animal or something.
Enough said.
Found this under "related videos."
thats ten times funnier.
Yeah, a gray owl flew right in front of me last week as I was running on a trail through Rock Creek Park (in Washington, DC) at dawn.
His wing-span was probably 6-7 feet long. Seeing the impressive beast made my week!
@original poster:
What part of discovery was this? Same thing happened to me there in the summer of 2002...late in the day as well. I thought a huge pine cone or branch had hit me in the back of the head but then I saw the bastard flying away. A buddy of mine was up ahead of me and when we met at the end of our workout he told me that little bitch grabbed his head as well...
Man, I thought we were the only ones who experienced this.
Go cut and wash your hair. If an Owl thinks that your hair is a rodent or that a rodent is hiding in it you need to work on your hygiene.
Wow, never thought I'd find myself defending a gang of sexually hyperaggressive ducks on the Internet. Time to get a life.
This made me laugh, funniest thing I've seen all day.
txRUNNERgirl wrote:
And I am slightly afraid of geese.
I was running on the Trinity Trails when I stopped at the water fountain across the river from the RadioShack campus. While getting a drink, I felt something hitting me in the back of the knee. I looked back, and there were about 8 geese standing there while one of them pecked me in the leg.
I reached out and b*tch-slapped the goose. That was a huge mistake. All the other geese got between that goose (while he shook the cobwebs out) and me, and they started hissing and chasing me. One actually bit off a piece of my running shoe. It looks like it'd be easy to just reach out and grab one by the neck to stop him, but they're pretty agile.
I once startled a possum. The little guy actually screamed. It was nothing compared to my scream.
This topic really hits home.
I have lived in the Seattle area (Redmond) and have been attacked about six times over the past 10 years while going out on early morning runs. One day I was attacked (grabbed with talons) twice on the same run!
Other running friends have given me the "Squirrel Head," or "Rabbit Dome" as nicknames and it has been a good laugh while quaffing beers. My running logs seem to say they start this time of year and go to mid Fall.
Nothing like a little shock from an 18-24 inch bird talon to get the morning juices going! In certain areas, I will carry a small limb above my head until I hit a safe zone. Some hikers saw me and all I said when I passed them was "OWLS"
Give a Hoot!
tony "rabbit dome" young
People getting attacked by running? How about a hawk decending on my dad's head through his open sunroof at a stop light!
My friend also got attacked by a hawk and they published the whole story in the newspaper!
I know this kid called Zach AKA "Frank the Tank" who has really girly hair and also lives in Seattle if he was out running he would DEFINITLY get attacked by an owl!!
happened to me with a crow protecting her young...needless to say I had crow that night for dinner and some eggs to go with it.