When Hannah Bailey went out for a run on the chain of lakes trail in Halifax, she never expected to be attacked by an owl.
She tells the Weather Network she saw it swoop down and land on a tree about 10 minutes into her run. She stopped to take a photo and sent it to a few people on her way back.
Half an hour later, she was attacked by the owl two more times, first hitting the back of her head and pulling on her ponytail before flying away, only to return five minutes later to scrape its talons down the back of her head and pull on her ponytail. She screamed to scare it off and escaped uninjured.
“It felt like someone with really long nails had grabbed the back of my head and was scraping their nails down my scalp while pulling on my ponytail at the same time,” she recalls.
“It happened very quickly—probably only a few seconds each time the owl came after me. I don’t think it was too interested in me once it realized I was a snack that would fight back.”
While these encounters are rare, there was at least one other incident with a jogger on the same evening.
Preventing future attacks
Hannah says the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables gave her some tips to help prevent further attacks.
If she’s running along the trail, it was suggested she wear a hat to help prevent injury, but not with the pom pom on it, because it could be mistaken for prey.
She was also told to tuck her hair into her jacket and avoid running at dawn and dusk.
What could have triggered the attacks?
“There are interactions between humans and birds that create these kinds of incidents,” says David Currie from the Nova Scotia Bird Society.
“Owls generally stay away from where public people are, so they’ll go and hide deep in the woods. But in this particular instance, I [suspect] the owl was close, and … set up its winter territory … and somebody happened to disturb it at the wrong time.”
Currie says owls tend to be more aggressive when they have babies in their nest, and for one to act out this time of year is more unusual.
“I suspect that it is probably a young bird that has decided to show his strength,” he says.
Hannah says that while the incidents caught her off guard, she isn’t afraid to frequent the trail again, thanks to the tips she received.
Header image: File photos/Cheryl Santa Maria/Canva Pro. Interview and report by Nathan Coleman. Article edited by Cheryl Santa Maria. Some quotes have been edited for grammar/brevity.