Owl attacks joggers and steals their hats

[Omaha Steve]

Barred owl attacks passers-by and whips off their hats in Salem, Oregon, prompting warning to anyone who might cross its path


A barred owl (file photograph). Photograph: Jimmy May/AP


http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/06/owl-attacks-joggers-and-steals-their-hats


Reuters in Portland Thursday 5 February 2015 20.55 EST

Oregon officials are warning early morning joggers and park visitors in the state capital, Salem, to watch out for an owl that steals hats after at least four people were attacked in a month.

No one was seriously hurt in any of the incidents but Brad Hilliard, 36, is one of the joggers who have lost headwear in a brush with the bird.

“It was kind of amazing how it just swooped down and grabbed my hat like that,” Hilliard said.

“It just pulled it right off my head like it was nothing!”

FULL story at link.

[DetlefK]

1. Maybe using it as filler for the nest?

[leftofcool]

2. There are rules, ya know!

Rule number one when hiking..........ask permission from the animals. Rule number two, always remove your hat on owl crossings.

[el_bryanto]

3. Joggers are a suspicious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror in their hearts.

I must be e a creature of the night . . . I shall become . . . an owl!

Bryant

[madokie]

4. Over at our old home place

we have a pair of great horned owls that nest in one of the hollers. One of my brothers moved back here from california after he retired and built a home there, anyways he has this old mail box beside his drive out in front of his house, no mailman ever gets that far out in the boonies, he has it for the nostalgia of it all. Anyways he had a couple wooden doves perched on top of that old mail box and one day he noticed one of them gone. It perplexed him what had happened to it but being the old cali boy he turned into never gave it much more thought then one day the other dove was missing and that really had his attention. anyways a few months later he was cleaning the leaves out of the fence row and found the last dove. It had talon marks on it so we all figure the owls are the ones who did this crime. One day one of his roosters came up missing and a few days later he thought he heard it but wasn't really sure but the next day while he was out in the yard piddling up over the hill came the rooster, all torn and tattered like it had been in one hell of a fight with something. The rooster will not come out in the open for the life of it anymore. It stays under cover no matter what the other chickens are doing and always keeps a close watch on the sky when he's where he can see it that is. These owls are a good 24 to 30 inches long, big birds with a wing span of close to 5 foot I would say.

[treestar]

5. He looks cranky

Get off my lawn!

[Coventina]

6. I can haz hatz?

I don't know why, but stories of nature taking petty revenge on humanity are always amusing to me.