You know we love birds and are honored to receive beautiful photos to share here several times a week. But – on occasion, birds can be dangerous too, especially in nesting season, and we have three recent reports to share. First one is just in from Greg:
I wanted to give a heads up to anyone that runs or walks on Fairmount (Ave) about an aggressive owl.
Last night around dusk I was running when I felt something on my head and realized an owl had clawed me. It hovered above and made a few more swipes. I scared it off and then about 100 yards later it swooped again, clawing the back of my head. I didn’t see any blood but it feels like I have a scratch – hard to tell under my hair.
It was white, possibly a barred owl – a white, beautiful bird. It was silent as it approached. The incident happened downhill of where Admiral street crosses over – basically half way between the bridge underpass and the homes on the road.
I’ve heard owls like this will repeat the behavior, so I want to make sure people are aware.
Carl reported the same thing recently:
I normally go jogging around 8-9 at night. This might I was running down Fairmount ravine in the dark when something sharp clawed my head. This was north of the Admiral Way overpass. The owl would not let go for at least 50 meters and I had to shine a light in his face for him not to attack me. He tried several more times to dive bomb me.
The ravine is not far, by the way, from where Rose reported an attack along Harbor Avenue two months ago.
Our third report: A crow got aggressive outside the West Seattle (Admiral) Library one morning this week, reported by Karin:
Have you heard about a territorial crow at the West Seattle library? I put some books in the book drop … and a crow attacked me. It followed me to Met Market, cawing and diving at me. It didn’t touch me, but it certainly scared me! I’m wondering if it was me or if I just got too close to a nest. Either way, I’m avoiding the library for a while…
From the state’s excellent Living With Wildlife series, here’s information about dive-bombing crows, and a similar note about owls.
| 24 COMMENTS