[bcbirdclub] Owl Attacks in Maine
- From: "Roger Mayhorn" <rmayhorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "BCBC Listserve" <bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 23:55:15 -0400
BANGOR, Maine (AP) - Cross-country skiers who set out on a crisp, moonlit night
for a peaceful outing in Bangor's city forest are being targeted by a least one
ornery and territorial owl. Over the past three weeks, at least eight skiers
and a few romping dogs apparently have fallen victim to a great horned owl that
swoops down from a tree with talons outstretched and smacks them on the head.
Jim Allen of Bangor said he was skiing in the dark on East Trail in the Rolland
F. Perry City Forest when he got hit.
"I've got my headlamp on, and all of a sudden, I felt a whack in the back of my
head and this stinging, and I understood what everybody was talking about,"
said Allen, said he who screamed and waved his poles. His thick winter hat
protected him from scratches.
Others haven't been so lucky. Dr. Dan Cassidy, a local physician and avid night
skier, said three skiers suffered small lacerations, but none needed stitches
to close their wounds.
Cassidy has been documenting owl attacks after one of the nocturnal birds
swooped down on him in nearby Orono in January. He was able to identify it as a
great horned owl, and he and others suspect that one or more of those owls are
the culprits in the Bangor attacks.
"It's the boldest nocturnal raptor and the one that has the best reputation for
the occasionally bizarre," said Charlie Todd, a wildlife biologist with the
state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
City Forester Brian Dugas posted warning signs Friday at three entry points to
the forest, alerting skiers and hikers about the threat of owl attacks.
Allen has been back in the forest twice since Tuesday's owl attack, an incident
he says he won't soon forget.
"They say ... there's no sound at all when an owl flies. So you don't hear them
coming," he said. "I believe it. Because I never knew anything was coming. I
was just skiing merrily along."
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Information from: Bangor Daily News, www.bangornews.com
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