My neighborhood is an older one, and fairly woodsy in some parts, so we have the occaisional wildlife problem. Raccoons, possums, etc. 'My' house down the street has a stretch of woods lining the backyard and I am serenaded by owls at night.
But I've been at my mother's just down the street since I came home from rehab. Over a week ago, we noticed hawks nesting in the driveway. We noticed not one, but TWO nests being built, actually. We only ever saw the hawks coming and going and have never been 100% sure there were more than two hawks.
Maybe the hawks fought, and one of the pairs was driven away. Maybe one pair had an egg that never hatched, and left. Either way, there are two nests and one is not active any longer- the remaining pair has at least one chick and is now extremely territorial and aggressive for some reason.
The inactive nest is in a Holly tree at the bottom of our driveway near the street. Maybe 100 yards up our driveway, directly above our cars, is the other nest. The first attack was our neighbor. Our neighbor is a personal trainer and when he doesn't have appointments, he works outside a lot, especially in the nice weather. Usually, its in his garage. This day it wasn't. He was standing around in his driveway (which is right beside ours- a line of small bushes a plants is the only thing that separates them) and got a warning swoop that knocked his hat off. Two hours later, he was full-on attacked and an ambulance was called.
At that point, it was a strange, upsetting fluke- I/we joked that it didn't like his hat. We figured he had just been standing around outside too long and he had aggravated it.
Then my dad was attacked, just walking from the back door to his car- less than 50 feet. He didn't sustain scratches from talons like my neighbor, but it hit him full force and he had a heck of a headache. Now we think it's offended by bald men- but we're not taking chances. My dad wears an old hard hat we had down in the basement, and if we go outside we use big, bright umbrellas and don't go alone (both seem to deter them from attacking).
The weekend went fine like that. Then today, the occupational therapist that has just started coming to see my grandmother was attacked. I don't think she was scratched badly, but she said she felt it pulling at her hair. She cut her session off early to go to the hospital and be checked out.
So I've had to call the physical therapist and nurse who see me weekly and warn them. Yay. As well as warning any friends who were considering coming over, and Lokky.
The first two calls made to County Animal Control (by my neighbor, then by my mother when my dad was attacked) were fruitless. We were told nothing could be done because birds of prey are federally protected. When my mom called, the man she spoke with was slightly concerned because apparently even though hawks are indeed territorial this time of year it's highly unusual for them to be outright attacking people unprovoked like this, and he said he's make some calls today (the call was on saturday so he couldn't reach anybody effective or important).
Today when we called AC again, the lady she talked to gave her Game and Inland Fishery's number, as if AC was throwing their hands in the air. My mom's currently at work so I have no idea what's happened since that call.
I have a friend who works for the VA Dept of Agriculture, and knows some stuff about this kind of thing... she gave me the number to what may be the Game Warden and is encouraging me to name drop (if her friend is not retired)... not sure if I'm comfortable doing that. But she also insists that regardless of whether we are defending ourselves or not, if one of us were to harm or kill one of the hawks, we'd be arrested. I can't believe that- don't I have a constitutional RIGHT to defend myself, if that hawk comes flying at me? On my own property? Especially since it's well on record that they've been attacking people at random and unprovoked? Le grrr.
So, do you guys have any crazy/dangerous/unbelievable encounters with wildlife stories??
I'm sure it wouldn't be enough of a shock to harm the big bastard, but make him think twice about swooping again, or develop a fear of tennis rackets, yessir...
