Attacked by Owl--Using Flashlight For Defense!

I jog late at night--between 10 and 11PM usually.

Our neighborhood has streetlights in most areas, but one area in particular is quite dark and unlit.

Last night as I ran through the unlit area, something hit me hard on top of my head. It was hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to knock me down. I looked around but I saw and heard nothing. Again, it is quite dark around this area of the road and I didn't have a flashlight. I started running again. About 100 feet later...WHAM! I get hit again! I look around again and still I see and hear nothing. I had a hat on and I didn't have any broken skin. It was more like someone hit me on top of my head with a closed fist.

At this point I run back home and grab my trusty Nitecore MT10A and head back to the dark area. I ran through the dark area twice, but this time I had the light set on turbo and I was shining it all around me as I ran. No more attacks.

After talking to others around here, I concluded it was most likely an owl defending it's nest/territory. Spring is nesting season and owls can get aggressive. Being predators, they are also silent flyers, which would account for why I never heard anything approaching me. Also, I was hit too hard for it to have been something smaller like a sparrow. It really rung my bell both times I was hit.

So who else here has been using their flashlight as defense against owl attacks?

Wow, that's pretty serious! I've gone on hikes to look for owls before, but none have attacked the group while I was there!

Sometimes it's very possible to walk right up on one then surprise it. Done it myself. They just take off and don't care what's their the way. Had them miss me by just feet however it wasn't an attack rather a mutual blundering into. That said I have read reports of owls attacking people so see no reason why that couldn't have been the case here. Given their speed odds are it would be all over before yea know what happened flashlight or not. I had a bright headlamp and flashlight yet still got within a few feet of one without knowing.

GrnXnham,
That has to be the most unusual topic heading in the history of CPF!

Glad you weren't hurt - those Owl talons always look fierce ...

The first problem I see is you are a member of a flashlight forum, own a nice light and yet were outside in the dark without a flashlight lol. No worries though it happens to all of us, it took me needing mine twice before I finally made sure I have one all the time, especially when away from home.

As for the owl I have seen one attempt to attack a friend of mine. We were putting down tobacco and he was up on the top rail of the barn when he moved a stick of tobacco. He started yelling and cussing and then we heard something about an owl. When we looked up there was a small barn owl swooping at him and trying to hit him in the head because he had disturbed the owl's nest. It last about a minute and then the owl left. Of course my friend tried to play it off as if the owl were three foot tall and weighed 15 pounds but we all knew better lol.

Haha Tac, that reminds me of the time one of my friends hooked a northern pike so big it almost sank the boat. Luckily it got away before everyone drowned.

I keep a small light on the ring with my house key, so I'm never outside without at least that - currently a Ghost 130.

I had this issue a few times, simple solution for me was to simply leave the hat at home..........



















But my head got cold so decided on something a little more intimidating .........





All things serious, glad your ok

This is kind of rare. Owls don't usually attack humans.

In 1974, before I was interested in flashlights I had an owl with a 5' wingspan swoop down at me. With the Lightning reflexes of a terrified 14 year old I avoided getting hit(by riding my bike into an irrigation ditch). No one believed me until 3 days later when I got my courage up and went back to the spot with some friends-although we were not attacked, one of my friends saw it flying(he said it had to have a 10' wing span, but I think it was fear talking). Later we found out it was a nesting area. Glad you are OK. So if you were wearing a head lamp, would it avoid you or hit harder because you were so much easier to see?

ven said:

I had this issue a few times, simple solution for me was to simply leave the hat at home..........

But my head got cold so decided on something a little more intimidating .........



All things serious, glad your ok

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Now all you've got to do is to stay away from the people that jack light deer and all is good!

Around here, we've got some very large owls. They have a field day on rabbits and the occasional feral kitten.

The farmer behind me has probably killed more owls due to poisoning rats and mice around his hay bails.

The only flying creatures we get are bats, cute little things(well the ones outside anyway).
Little owl





Owls wise, the is a farm we often got to at smithels, great for the kids and have a European barn owl there................BIG!!!
Cant find that pic!

Are you sure it was an owl that attacked you sounds very strange to me, we have a barn owl here living in the barn and it never bothers any of us.

owls can be very damn aggressive. The beak and talons on a barn owl are not to be taken lightly. The owls here in northern Va are some kind of barn owl sized owl that is just a different color. Had one nest at the edge of my back yard last summer. Was amazing it would just be sitting there chilling then BAM swoops down to the ground picks up a mouse with its beak and is back in its nest gobbling it down in all of about 2 seconds.

I would use my lights to watch the nest it was a big nest. The owl did not not like looking into my lights it would rotate its head around enough to avoid looking into the beam. I swear the thing never slept it just sat there eyeing the surrounding ground for mice the second it saw one BAM 2 seconds as before it was crazy.

Ill end with this. Many years ago after high school me my gf and a group of friends in Chesapeake Beach Md made our way out to a vast tobacco field to party one night as one the guys with us knew the owner of the field said it was all cool just dont destroy any of the massive tobacco plants.

The night went on we partied among the towering tobacco plants then all of the sudden we started hearing screams coming from two directions. They were far away at first but over about an hour got closer and closer louder and louder. Some of us started to freak. It was a hard long drive along a bad dirt road to get to where we were I was one of the sober drivers and really didnt feel like cramming a bunch of drunk panicked idiots into my car to navigate a really bad dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

Then it got worse. Even I started to freak. Im talking bloody murder screaming very very loud coming from two directions opposite each other. Then total chaos broke out as two of the biggest owls I have still ever seen in my life burst out of opposite sides of the tobacco field and began fighting like crazy in the air about 20 ft off the ground. None of us at the time had a flashlight the headlights of my old Camaro provided the only light besides a small fire we had built.

I couldnt believe what I was seeing. It took a minute for me to accept that these massive birds were actually owls. I poop you not if one of them stood on the ground it would be OVER 4 feet tall. Their wingspan was astonishing and pretty frightening flapping hard and mad as they attacked each other. Giant eyes, massive and I mean MASSIVE talons. The display sent just about all of us running around like idiots screaming for some kind of cover. There were about 25 of us. Then it went from bad to worse as these two freak owls stopped attacking each other and started attacking US!

I guess we just looked like prey running around and screaming. Both birds dive bombed us over and over and over again screaming the whole time. The owls were brown. They looked like barn owls after some freak steroid and growth hormone therapy. They would hit hard enough to knock 200 pound men onto their faces. It was horrifying. This went on for 20 minutes. One of the guys actually ended up with a broken nose he got hit in the face by one of the owls semi clenched talons.

Wingspan? Twenty feet. I poop you not it was some of the most bizarre things I have ever seen in my life. What stopped them attacking us and drove them off was that a Md state police helipad was on the other side of a near hill all of the sudden the pad lit up and a large Md state helicopter started up and took off it was very loud you could actually feel the whoop whoop whoop of the rotor blades at one point. Big damn chopper Idk the make or model but its one of those choppers big enough to be used to winch up wounded people.

Years later I learn that the owner of the vast tobacco field used genetically modified everything in order to get the biggest tobacco plants he could. We theorized that the freak owls were a result of feeding off of prey affected by the vast array of growth inducing everything the owner used to maximize his profits.

But YES a good flashlight would have been a godsend! We were literally running into each other in the dim glow of my headlights and a dying fire. This was circa 1996 there really was not much then that would have had the desired effect outside of specialized and very expensive hard to obtain lights. Thinking back just a good solid 6 volt big reflectored light would have done well to light up the area and maybe get the attacking birds to at least back off.

Now? Hell Id go back with a couple of the new Fenix lanterns and a rack of high output kick but lights. Id have my SR52UT for owl defense. Doesnt take much to blind a bird especially a beam from a concentrated thrower and no you dont need 7000 lumens.

One of the craziest nights of my life. It also has left me with the belief that the "Mothman" in WV is also a freak owl cause these things were monsters bigger than freaking sea eagles.

I bet it was a ninja.

Great replies, all!

Why was a flashoholic without a flashlight? Usually when I'm outside at night I have a light. But there is something peaceful about going running by yourself during a quiet night in a rural area in near total darkness. Well, at least I THOUGHT it was going to be peaceful.

I have now run by the same spot several more times on subsequent nights without incident. Of course I'm shining my light up in the trees and all around me just so I can blind that damn bird just in case it wants to nail me again.

I live in the Seattle area and around here there has been several incidents in the last few years of similar owl attacks on people who are out alone at night. They usually attack in the same way--a fast attack from above--thump you on the head-- and then they quickly fly away before you can react. Smart birds. If they hung around on top of my head I could easily have just attacked back with my fists. The owl doesn't want to risk injury. They just want me out of the area.

Usually it's barred owls here. Some of the comments after this video sound like me--runners at night.

http://www.kplu.org/post/owls-attack-people-being-swooped-seattle-area-parks

Tac Gunner said:

The first problem I see is you are a member of a flashlight forum, own a nice light and yet were outside in the dark without a flashlight lol. No worries though it happens to all of us..............

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Hey that is pretty funny. You know I take mine all the time and yet nothing ever happens where I really need it. I suppose that if I didn't have it, then something probably would happen.

I had a bear in my basement, thats another grizzly tale though. Serves me right for not having my light on me.

An owl got my poor boy Riley in the back yard 2 nights ago. He's a 6 year old Border Collie. We spent the night at the animal hospital getting him stapled up. It was a pretty nasty hole in his left rib cage. I've seen this owl before, he's aggressive and known in the area including at least one missing small dog. I go out with my dog at night now and wave a bright thrower straight up in the air until Riley's done with his business. It's been a couple days since the attack and Riley is healing well. He hates how much attention and care I'm giving it.

I saw I saw an owl recently. Actually, I heard the owl first. With my tiny flashlight I was able to pick him out the trees. The owl's eyes reflected the little bit of light that came from my keychain light.

Dang, you are lucky that it did not do more damage. As others have said, the talons & beak on owls can be fierce. I know, because I am The Hawk.